David Rosenhan's classic article "On Being Sane in Insane Places" was published in the journal Science. Introduced with the question "If sanity and insanity exist, how shall we know them?" Rosenhan's paper outlined the details and addressed the implications of, a study conducted between 1969 and 1972 in which he and several colleagues gained admission to various psychiatric hospitals by faking a single symptom; namely, that they had been hearing voices. Upon admission to a psychiatric ward, Rosenhan and his fellow participants would immediately cease simulating any symptoms of abnormality.

Rosehan's central question was, would anybody detect that the pseudopatients involved in the study were in fact sane. The answer was a resounding no, raising fundamental questions regarding the experience of psychiatric hospitalization and the consequences of psychodiagnostic labeling.