Friday, June 07, 2013

Ersatz faith ...

Bryan Appleyard - Psychiatry on Trial. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

I recall reading about a group of psychiatrists having themselves admitted to mental hospitals as patients. I think that one of the hospitals was the long-gone Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry. What I most remember is that ordinary behavior tended to be regarded as symptomatic because, after all, the person doing it was a mental patient. For instance, one of the doctors kept a notebook. He was written up for compulsive writing behavior.

1 comment:

  1. I remember hearing of a conference in the 1960s at which a number of judges had themselves committed for observation; I think that the local police must have been in on it, and turned them in as having been found behaving strangely. As I heard the story, they were able to fool the psychiatrists but not the real patients. I heard of this from an uncle, but whether the psychiatrist or the judge I no longer remember.

    ReplyDelete