Comment by tines
Comment by tines 9 hours ago
This is from the seventies. I wonder if things would be different fifty years later.
Comment by tines 9 hours ago
This is from the seventies. I wonder if things would be different fifty years later.
I'd say yes. I have a book by Lauren Slater, called 'Opening Skinners Box' in which she researched many psychological experiments of the past, and subjected herself to similar conditions where she could, in an effort to understand better.
The chapter on 'Thud' ended with her visiting a psychiatric hospital of good reputation with an emergency room, she basically said the same things as the researchers in the paper. She was given some anti-psychotics and sent away.
> She was given some anti-psychotics and sent away
But that confirms the main point of the experiment, which was that people who didn't need psychiatric treatment were given it anyway.
It's only of secondary importance that the prescribed treatment changed from hospitalization in 1973 to drugs in 2004. The primary point is that there was no objective way to determine who genuinely needed treatment. She didn't, but was diagnosed anyway.
This objection is so obvious that she must have addressed it in the book. Do you remember if she did?
I happen to have the book handy.
> HERE’S WHAT’S DIFFERENT: I was not admitted. This is a very significant difference. No one even thought about admitting me. I was mislabeled but not locked up. Here’s another thing that’s different: every single medical professional was nice to me. Rosenhan and his confederates felt diminished by their diagnoses; I, for whatever reason, was treated with palpable kindness.
Seems she would disagree with your assessment that being prescribed some likely-harmless pills is the same as losing your freedom.
There's also a section earlier where she presents an argument the actual finding of the study is that mental healthcare is not set up to handle adversarial or dishonest patients, which is still a problem and a tough one to solve.
Like I say elsewhere I have visited two people in our local psychiatric unit. I haven't encountered any of the shrinks but the nurses vary a lot in attitude. The whole place is underfunded and I believe most people would become more mentally ill by being kept in this environment, which has little more than a TV to keep people motivated. The only view of the outdoors is through windows and almost no one is allowed to smoke even though this causes immense tension.
I wonder the same. Have been reading up on literature related to ADD/ADHD diagnosis and prescription stimulants. It seems like there is little to no friction in getting a legit positive diagnosis. One can pretend to have issues securing a medication that is only meant for strong ADHD patients. I know someone who was able to get their hand on a lot of such stimulants, got addicted, went over the typical dosage, and is now suffering from psychosis.