In 1973, a scientist named Rosenhan wrote about a famous study. He said that eight healthy people went to mental hospitals. They said they heard voices, but nothing else was wrong. All of them were kept in the hospitals. Many doctors and students read about this study.

But many years later, a writer looked at old records. Some of the records did not match the study. Now some experts think the study was not honest.

In 1973, the American psychologist David Rosenhan published a famous paper in the journal Science. He reported that eight healthy people, including himself, went to 12 hospitals and said they heard voices. All of them were admitted, and most were diagnosed with schizophrenia. After that, they acted normally, but they stayed for 19 days on average. The study shocked the world and made people question whether psychiatrists could tell healthy people from ill people.

However, in 2019, a journalist who had studied Rosenhan's papers for years published a book. She found that his own medical records described more serious symptoms than his paper did, and that only a few of the eight people could be traced.

In 1973, David Rosenhan published "On Being Sane in Insane Places," a paper that went on to shape public views of psychiatry for decades. Rosenhan reported that eight mentally healthy pseudopatients, himself included, sought admission to 12 hospitals by claiming to hear voices saying words such as "empty" and "hollow." All were admitted, and most were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Once inside, they behaved normally.

Even so, they stayed an average of 19 days and were typically discharged with schizophrenia "in remission." The paper seemed to show that psychiatrists could not tell the sane from the insane, and it is said to have influenced the overhaul of diagnostic criteria. Critics responded early. In 1975, the psychiatrist Spitzer argued that admitting someone who reports hallucinations was reasonable, and that the label "in remission" proved doctors had noticed the symptoms were gone.

More damaging doubts came in 2019. The journalist Susannah Cahalan found that Rosenhan's own records described more severe symptoms than the paper did, that only a few pseudopatients could be identified, and that one participant who had a positive experience was apparently left out. Rosenhan had died in 2012, eleven years before a 2023 paper called his study "successful scientific fraud."