Opening Skinner's Box: Paper on Chapter 3, on Being Sane in Insane Places

Opening Skinner's Box: Paper on Chapter 3, "On Being Sane in Insane Places"

In Lauren Slater's book, Opening Skinner's Box, multiple psychological experiments and their possible effects on society were discussed and evaluated. In each chapter, a different psychological topic or issue, such as "On Being Sane in Insane Places", was discussed and presented to the reader through the eyes of the experimenter himself, a critic or person with analytical intent, and sometimes those who were experimented upon. The results of each experiment had effects on both the society of its time and in the present day 21st century. To specify, the chapter previous mentioned, "On Being Sane in Insane Places", detailed the experiments of David Rosenhan during the early 1970s involving the ability of psychologists to accurately diagnose a person in regards to being either sane or insane. This showed that the human mind is not completely understood yet and that the people who have the authority to judge whether a man can act with society correctly is not foolproof. In this essay, chapter three in Lauren Slater's book, On Being Sane in Insane Places, the experiments detailed within it, and its relevance in modern society will be discussed.

David Rosenhan was a psychologist of the 20th century who lived during the war in Vietnam and the draft, which was a tough time for many people worldwide. During this time, Rosenhan noticed the troubles through which certain people went through in order to avoid the draft; mainly those who faked mental illness in order to be admitted into an insane asylum and therefore be forcefully exempt from the draft. Rosenhan may not fully understand the pain that it would have been to go through a war because he wasn't in one. In order to understand how so many men were able to easily fake this illness, Rosenhan asked eight of his friends and colleagues to join him in a study whereby these insane asylums would be infiltrated. These colleagues and friends were ordinary people varying from a housewife or a painter to prestigious psychologists and psychiatrists. Since, Rosenhan believed that the diagnosing abilities of the psychologists were the main issue, he decided to send his subjects into hospitals with only one complaint: the recurring sound of a "thud" in their head. Once admitted, he instructed them to act entirely normal and report that they no longer heard that unmistakable "thud". His patients were all admitted and were released from the hospital with "sentences" varying from seven to fifty two days. Rosenhan effectively proved that the diagnosis tactics of the hospitals were clearly sub-par and favored the mental illness that was treated by commonly used drugs during his time. However, some critics have said that his complaint was so uncommon that it could be called insane and that he and his colleagues didn't act normally in the hospitals. Either way, changes needed to be made in the psychological field and in due time, they would come in several forms, none of which will be flawless

Many years later, Lauren Slater decided to recreate this experiment in the modern society using the same tactic, however only she will go. Her experiment, mirroring Rosenhan's in everything except experience and number of participants failed to result in her admittance into the hospital, but was still met with consistent confusion to the doctors. In concluding this, Slater displays that the psychological field has advanced just as other medical fields have and the main difference she concludes is the care with which the doctors show for her. They seem to truly want her to feel better and don't try to push a drug on her or deem her to be "insane" as was supposedly done before. Her experiment also showed that most cases of labeled insanity within hospitals today are accurate or at least more accurate than they used to be.

The human brain is still not completely understood and the means by which we deem a certain