From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!duke!mcnc!unc!smb
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: Replying about Hinkley Re: utzoo!Laura among others.
Article-I.D.: unc.3694
Posted: Wed Jul 14 21:23:27 1982
Received: Fri Jul 16 01:13:30 1982


References: pyuxcc.305

I was about to say that most folks couldn't simulate appropriate forms
of insanity well enough to fool shrinks -- one would have to act crazy
in a consistent fashion, including consistency with other documented
behavior.  Then I remembered this story; I'm sorry I don't have a specific
reference.

As part of an experiment (by some psychologists, I believe, though it may
have been my a newspaper), several sane (whatever that is) folks acted
crazy enough to get themselves committed to an institution.  Immediately
thereafter, they dropped the act and behaved normally.  It took them
*months* to convince the staff that they were rational!  Among the amusing
sidelights were that the other patients spotted the act almost immediately,
and that their normal and rational behavior was diagnosed as "hostility and
lack of co-operation" by the doctors.