Rosenhan- Conclusions

-Psychiatrists cannot reliably tell who is sane and who is insane.

-When people are in psychiatric hospital, their behaviour is assumed to reflect insanity, even when they are sane.

-Once labelled mentally ill a person becomes 'depersonalised' and thus powerless, and their label tends to 'stick' forever.

-A diagnosis of schizophrenia thus becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and the patient behaves accordingly.

-Maybe the pseudopatients were labled insane because doctors were bias towards Type 2 errors i.e. it is better to call a healthy person sick (type 2) than a sick person healthy (type 1).

-'The mentally ill are society's lepers' (Rosenhan).