The Great Pretender

by Susannah Cahalan

  “human trigger warning”… DJ Jaffe, “Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill,” TEDx at the National Council of Behavioral Health, April 25, 2018, https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/tedtalk-and-op-eds/.

  more mental health courts… Jaffe, Insane Consequences, 233–34.

  crisis intervention teams… Jaffe, Insane Consequences, 232–33.

  using legal force to get people to take their meds… Jaffe, Insane Consequences, 234–35.

  civil commitment reforms… “Improving Civil Commitment Laws and Standards,” Treatment Advocacy Center, https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/fixing-the-system/improving-laws-and-standards.

  a small subset of people, who are typically untreated… E. Fuller Torrey, “Stigma and Violence: Isn’t It Time to Connect the Dots?” Schizophrenia Bulletin 37, no. 5 (2011): 892–96, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3160234/.

  “Being psychotic is not an exercise”… DJ Jaffe is quoted in Carrie Arnold, “How Do You Treat Someone Who Doesn’t Accept They’re Ill?” BBC, August 7, 2018, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180806-how-do-you-treat-someone-who-doesnt-accept-theyre-ill.

  Sheriff Tom Dart of Chicago’s Cook County jail… Lesley Stahl, “Half of the Inmates Shouldn’t Be Here, Says Cook County Sheriff,” 60 Minutes, May 21, 2017, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cook-county-jail-sheriff-tom-dart-on-60-minutes/.

  “If I told you that was the case for cancer”… Thomas Insel, in-person interview, April 1, 2015.

  25: THE HAMMER

  social constructionist… Girishwar Misra and Anand Prakash, “Kenneth J. Gergen and Social Constructionism,” Psychological Studies 57, no. 2 (2012): 121–25, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12646-012-0151-0.

  “To meet [Rosenhan] and talk with him”… Kenneth Gergen, phone interview, January 17, 2016.

  We discussed her eclectic work… Nancy Horn, phone interviews, November 3, 2015; February 25, 2015; March 13, 2015; and in-person, April 14, 2015.

  protect “the rights and welfare”… “Institutional Review Boards Frequently Asked Questions,” U.S. Food & Drug Administration (1998), https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/institutional-review-boards-frequently-asked-questions.

  Chestnut Lodge was a famous private psychiatric hospital… The history of Chestnut Lodge was culled from a variety of sources, among them Ann-Louise S. Silver, “Chestnut Lodge, Then and Now,” Contemporary Psychoanalysis 33, no. 2 (1997): 227–49; Neal Fitzsimmons, “Woodlawn Hotel—Chestnut Lodge Sanitarium, the Bullard Dynasty,” Montgomery County Historical Society 17, no. 4 (1974): 2–11; and interviews with former staff, including a phone interview with Cindy Sargent on October 6, 2015, and an in-person interview with Pamela Shell on June 15, 2015.

  Dr. Ray Osheroff, a depressed forty-one-year-old… The history of Dr. Ray Osheroff came from Mark Moran, “Recalling Chestnut Lodge: Seeking the Human Behind the Psychosis,” Psychiatric News, April 25, 2014, https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2014.5a17; Sandra G. Boodman, “‘A Horrible Place, a Wonderful Place,’” Washington Post, October 8, 1989, https://www.washingtonpost.com; and Sharon Packer, “A Belated Obituary: Raphael J. Osheroff, MD,” Psychiatric Times, June 28, 2013, http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blog/belated-obituary-raphael-j-osheroff-md.

  “psychiatry was a house divided”… Packer, “A Belated Obituary.”

  Then, on July 13, 2009… Asha Beh, “Historic Rockville Asylum Destroyed in Two-Alarm Fire,” NBC Washington, July 13, 2009, https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Historic-Rockville-Asylum-Destroyed-in-Two-Alarm-Fire.html.

  “This is a summertime photo”… The interviewee wishes to remain anonymous.

  Laura did use the opportunity… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 6, 13.

  “I didn’t take part in this study”… Judith Godwin, email to Susannah Cahalan, February 9, 2016.

  Grace Hartigan, who was born in Newark… Grace Hartigan’s history was compiled from a variety of sources, including Cathy Curtis, Restless Ambition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015); William Grimes, “Grace Hartigan, 86, Abstract Painter, Dies,” New York Times, November 18, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/arts/design/18hartigan.html; and Michael McNay, “Grace Hartigan,” The Guardian, November 23, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/nov/24/1. Also helpful were phone interviews with Cathy Curtis (February 8, 2016); Daniel Belasco (February 11, 2015); and Hart Perry (February 12, 2016).

  “It’s not Grace”… Rex Stevens, phone interview, February 14, 2016.

  Excerpt of David Rosenhan outline for his unpublished book, from his private files.

  a series of letters written by a woman… Letters between Mary Peterson and David Rosenhan can be found in the David L. Rosenhan Papers.

  self-published book of adoring short stories… Mary Pledge Peterson, Life Is So Daily in Cincinnati (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Book Publishers, 2012).

  “An angel on wheels”… Phil Nuxhall, “An Angel on Wheels,” Positive 365, 2012, http://www.positive365.com/Positive-Magazine/Positive-2012/An-Angel-on-Wheels.

  “gray-haired” and “grandmotherly”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 3, 16.

  I contacted Mary’s surviving sister and childhood best friend… Betty Pledge Maxey, phone interview, January 13, 2016; and Connie Selvey, phone interview, January 26, 2016.

  “There’s no way that Mary was a pseudopatient”… Florence Keller, phone interview, March 26, 2016.

  “the founding father of positive psychology”… “The 5 Founding Fathers of Positive Psychology,” Positive Psychology Program, February 8, 2019, https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/founding-fathers.

  His biography matched up… For more on Seligman, see his memoir, The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey from Helplessness to Optimism (New York: Public Affairs, 2018).

  he did go undercover at Norristown State Hospital… Medical records and letters recording Rosenhan’s and Seligman’s stay at Norristown can be found in the David L. Rosenhan Papers.

  thirty-eight and forty-eight… Rosenhan lists various ages for Carl in different locations, such as his unpublished book and his pseudopatient list.

  but he had died in 1992… Bruce Lambert, “Perry London, 61, Psychologist; Noted for His Studies of Altruism,” New York Times, June 22, 1992, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/22/nyregion/perry-london-61-psychologist-noted-for-his-studies-of-altruism.html.

  His daughter Miv, a psychotherapist… Miv London, phone interview, February 8, 2016.

  “Everyone loved David”… Vivian London, Skype interviews, February 8, 2016, and March 3, 2016.

  “It has become obvious”… Vivian London, email to Susannah Cahalan, February 8, 2016.

  wrote a letter of recommendation for Leibovitz… David Rosenhan, letter to David Hapgood, November 4, 1970, David L. Rosenhan Papers.

  a glowing New York Times obituary… “Dr. Maury Leibovitz, Art Dealer and Clinical Psychologist, 75,” New York Times, June 5, 1992, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/05/arts/dr-maury-leibovitz-art-dealer-and-a-clinical-psychologist-75.html.

  The next day a man’s Southern California drawl… Josh Leibovitz, phone interview, February 10, 2016.

  “No one with the name or initials”… text message to Susannah Cahalan, February 13, 2016.

  “I spoke with mother”… Josh Leibovitz, email to Susannah Cahalan, March 2, 2016.

  “The upper portion of the painting”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 6, 16–17.

  “The bottom half of the painting [is] much less intense”… Rosenhan, Odyssey into Lunacy, chapter 6, 18–19.

  26: AN EPIDEMIC

  I wrote a commentary… Susannah Cahalan, “In Search of Insane Places” (correspondence), Lancet Psychiatry 4, no. 5 (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30138-4.

  “Well, he did often use some”… Carole Westmoreland, phone interview, December 5, 2016.

  “minimal self-references an
d convoluted phrases”… Sarah Griffiths, “The Language of Lying,” Daily Mail, November 5, 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2821767/The-language-LYING-Expert-reveals-tiny-clues-way-people-talk-reveal-withholding-truth.html.

  he said that it was impossible to suss… Jamie Pennebaker, phone interview, May 2017.

  “I continue to wonder”… Florence Keller, email to Susannah Cahalan, February 15, 2017.

  His publisher, Doubleday, sued him… Doubleday & Company, Inc. v. David L. Rosenhan.

  publishing a paper on the effects of success… Isen, Horn, and Rosenhan, “Effects of Success and Failure on Children’s Generosity.”

  mood and self-gratification… Underwood, Moore, and Rosenhan, “Affect and Self-Gratification.”

  joys of helping… David L. Rosenhan, Peter Salovey, and Kenneth Hargis, “The Joys of Helping: Focus of Attention Mediates the Impact of Positive Affect on Altruism,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40, no. 5 (1981): 899–905.

  moral character… David L. Rosenhan, “Moral Character,” Stanford Law Review 27, no. 3 (1975): 925–35.

  pseudoempiricism… David L. Rosenhan, “Pseudoempiricism: Who Owns the Right to Scientific Reality?” Psychological Inquiry 2, no. 4 (1991): 361–63.

  study of nightmares experienced after an earthquake… James M. Wood, Richard R. Bootzin, David Rosenhan, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, and Forest Jourden, “Effects of 1989 San Francisco Earthquake on Frequency and Content of Nightmares,” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 101, no. 2 (1992): 219–24.

  “David became sort of less”… Michael Wald, phone interview, February 16, 2016.

  one paper on how notetaking aids jurors’ recall… David L. Rosenhan, Sara L. Eisner, and Robert J. Robinson, “Notetaking Aids Juror Recall,” Law and Human Behavior 18, no. 1 (1994): 53–61.

  on their ability (or, rather, inability) to disregard facts… William C. Thomson, Geoffrey T. Fong, and David L. Rosenhan, “Inadmissible Evidence and Jury Verdicts,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40, no. 3 (1981): 453–63.

  a shocking percentage of Stanford students… David Rosenhan, “Intense Religiosity,” Comment Draft, unpublished, accessed from private files.

  “Whenever you’d try to find him”… The former graduate student prefers to remain anonymous.

  “I was suspicious of him”… Eleanor Maccoby, in-person interview, February 22, 2017.

  “I never really connected with Rosenhan”… Walter Mischel to Lee Ross, email, forwarded to Susannah Cahalan, February 15, 2017.

  “He could make you feel”… This person prefers to remain anonymous.

  “absolutely not possible”… Nancy Horn, phone interview, May 13, 2019.

  “My dad was a storyteller”… Jack Rosenhan, in-person interview, February 20, 2017.

  “I don’t know”… Bill and Maryon Underwood, phone interview, July 8, 2016.

  “I never thought of him as a BS artist”… Harry Lando, in-person interview, November 19, 2016.

  social psychologist Diederik Stapel… For a great summation of Stapel’s fraud, see Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “The Mind of a Con Man,” New York Times, April 26, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/diederik-stapels-audacious-academic-fraud.html; and Martin Enserink, “Dutch University Sacks Social Psychologist over Faked Data,” Science News, September 7, 2011, https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/09/dutch-university-sacks-social-psychologist-over-faked-data.

  published in Science about a correlation… D. A. Stapel and S. Lindenberg, “Coping with Chaos: How Disordered Contexts Promote Stereotyping and Discrimination,” Science 332 (2011): 251–53.

  “perhaps the biggest con man”… Bhattacharjee, “The Mind of a Con Man.”

  this level of con could happen… For a great rundown of how this level of con happens in academia, read Richard Harris, Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions (New York: Basic Books, 2017).

  midst of a “replication crisis”… Ed Yong, “Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Running Out of Excuses,” The Atlantic, November 19, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/psychologys-replication-crisis-real/576223/.

  “power posing”… Susan Dominus, “When the Revolution Came for Amy Cuddy,” New York Times, October 18, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/magazine/when-the-revolution-came-for-amy-cuddy.html.

  “the facial feedback hypothesis”… Stephanie Pappas, “Turns Out, Faking a Smile Might Not Make You Happier After All,” LiveScience, November 3, 2016, https://www.livescience.com/56740-facial-feedback-hypothesis-fails-in-replication-attempt.html.

  “ego depletion”… Daniel Engber, “Everything Is Crumbling,” Slate, March 6, 2016, http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html.

  started the “Reproducibility Project”… “Estimating the Reproducibility of Psychological Science,” Science 349, no. 6251 (August 28, 2015): 943–53, http://science.sciencemag.org/content/349/6251/aac4716/tab-pdf.

  A replication of the study… Tyler W. Watts, Greg J. Duncan, and Haonan Quan, “Revisiting the Marshmallow Test: A Conceptual Replication Investigating Links Between Early Delay of Gratification and Later Outcomes,” Psychological Science 29, no. 7 (2018), https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618761661.

  Yet the marshmallow test and its follow-ups… Brian Resnick, “The ‘Marshmallow Test’ Said Patience Was a Key to Success. A New Replication Tell Us S’More,” Vox, June 8, 2018, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/6/17413000/marshmallow-test-replication-mischel-psychology.

  Stanley Milgram and his shock tests… Perry, Behind the Shock Machine.

  including a 2017 paper out of Poland… Dariusz Dolinski, Tomasz Grzyb, Michal Folwarczny, “Would You Deliver an Electric Shock in 2015? Obedience in Experimental Paradigm Developed by Stanley Milgram in the Fifty Years Following the Original Study,” Social Psychological and Personality Science 8, no. 8 (2017): 927–33, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550617693060.

  Among the hardest hit… Thank you to Philip Zimbardo for taking the time to speak with me on Skype, October 2, 2015.

  recruited students from a newspaper ad… Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo, “Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison.”

  “I was shocked. But not surprised”… Claudia Dreifus, “Finding Hope in Knowing the Universal Capacity for Evil,” New York Times, April 3, 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03conv.html.

  “not reformable”… Ben Blum, “The Lifespan of a Lie,” Medium, June 7, 2018, https://medium.com/s/trustissues/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62.

  “It was just a job”… Blum, “The Lifespan of a Lie.”

  “We must stop celebrating this work”… Brian Resnick, “The Stanford Prison Study Was Massively Influential. We Just Found Out It Was a Fraud,” Vox, June 13, 2018, https://www.vox.com/2018/6/13/17449118/stanford-prison-experiment-fraud-psychology-replication.

  “prime example of a study that fits our biases”… Peter Gray, phone interview, December 28, 2016.

  Caroline Barwood and colleague Bruce Murdoch… “Ex-UQ Academic Found Guilty of Fraud,” 9News.com, October 24, 2016, https://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/10/24/17/05/ex-uq-academic-found-guilty-of-fraud.

  Korean stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk… Choe Sang-Hun, “Disgraced Cloning Expert Convicted in South Korea,” New York Times, October 26, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/world/asia/27clone.html.

  There’s Elizabeth Holmes… For a roller-coaster ride of a story on the Theranos scandal, see John Carreyrou, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup (New York: Knopf, 2018).

  “Much of the scientific literature”… Richard Horton, “Offline: What Is Medicine’s 5 Sigma?” Lancet 385 (2015), https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60696-1/fulltext.

  One of the leaders of the push to uncover academic fraud… John P
. A. Ioannidis, “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” PLOS Medicine 2, no. 8 (2005), https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124.

  He’s found that out of thousands of early papers… John P. A. Ioannidis, Robert Tarone, and Joseph K. McLaughlin, “The False-Positive to False-Negative Epidemiological Studies,” Epidemiology 22, no. 4 (2011): 450–56, https://www.gwern.net/docs/statistics/decision/2011-ioannidis.pdf.

  followed forty-nine studies… Ben Goldacre, “Studies of Studies Show That We Get Things Wrong,” The Guardian, July 15, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/15/bad-science-studies-show-we-get-things-wrong.

  “flatly contradicted”… Goldacre, “Studies of Studies.”

  Brian Wansink resigned… Eli Rosenberg and Herman Wong, “This Ivy League Food Scientist Was a Media Darling. He Just Submitted His Resignation, School Says,” Washington Post, September 20, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/09/20/this-ivy-league-food-scientist-was-media-darling-now-his-studies-are-being-retracted/?utm_term=.4457b7c5cb0b.

  “academic misconduct in his research”… Michael I. Kotlikoff, “Statement of Cornell University Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff,” Cornell University, September 20, 2018, https://statements.cornell.edu/2018/20180920-statement-provost-michael-kotlikoff.cfm.

  “falsified and/or fabricated data”… Gina Kolata, “Harvard Calls for Retraction of Dozens of Studies by Noted Cardiac Researcher,” New York Times, October 15, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/health/piero-anversa-fraud-retractions.html.

  the fraudulent Wakefield study… The original study, since retracted, is A. J. Wakefield, S. H. Murch, A. Anthony, J. Linnell, D. M. Casson, M. Malik, et al., “Ileal Lymphoid Nodular Hyperplasia, Non-specific Colitis, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder in Children,” Lancet 351 (1998): 637–41. The definitive paper that exposed the study’s fraud is Editors, “Wakefield’s Article Linking MMR Vaccine and Autism Was Fraudulent,” BMJ (2011), https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452.full.print#ref-2.