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Psychiatric Diagnosis--The Rosenhan Experiment

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
I think there were quite a few experiments like this, actually going back to the 19th century! It is well known that psychiatrists typically cannot tell the difference between normal people and people with serious psychological problems. They rely on the setting to give them context - if you are in their office, and you might have psychiatric problem, often they will find one, whether its there or not.

Its more important I think that they focus on helping patients, and do not be consumed by diagnosis and diagnostic presumptions. Many ME patients might benefit from psychological counseling, but there is no good evidence that we benefit from psychogenic CBT or GET treatment, and considerable evidence of harm.