Martha Mitchell effect - when the surrounding is easier to believe in what you are crazy than what you do not're lying

Many movies have a scene where the main character is desperately trying to convey to the police, the government, the family some terrible truth, but no one believes him - though this too incredible. In most cases, the hero announce crazy and sent to a psychiatric hospital, and only when it is "too late", it turns out he was right.

In fact, such cases are in reality also occur, albeit infrequently. For them there is even the name of psychology - "Martha Mitchell effect».

The uniqueness of this phenomenon is that the patient here just okay. The problem is the existence of a sort of "mental block" in the mind of the psychiatrist.

In most cases, the effect of Martha Mitchell appears on two occasions: a man says that he is under the hood of the intelligence services, or that he was hunting the mafia. In any case, his words sound too far-fetched to surrounding able to believe in them.

Mitchell in March, which was the name of this effect was the most famous woman with whom a similar story happened. As the wife of the Attorney General in the administration of Richard Nixon, she stumbled upon evidence incriminating some dignitaries. Martha became silent, and made a public statement, but no one took her words seriously considering a mentally ill woman. And the press, and the public are satisfied with this explanation. And only when the famous Watergate scandal broke, everyone realized that Mitchell was right.



The first effect of Martha Mitchell described the psychologist Brendan Maher. In the 1950s and 1960s, he worked with patients who spend time in prison, and I noticed that many psychologists are automatically nonsense least likely elements in the stories of his patients.

What is the probability that a person actually pursues the Mafia that behind him walk spies that his relatives are hatching evil plans, or that it suffers from some extremely rare disease? The probability is very small, but it's still there. However, after the doctor meet with hundreds of patients, fears which were pure illusion, it will automatically take over the manifestation of the disease and the one and only real story.

Another difficulty associated with identifying the Martha Mitchell effect lies in the fact that very often the person making the implausible statement has personal characteristics that really give others reason to doubt his word.

As for the Martha Mitchell, in her allegations of illegal activity surrounding the president really had the elements in which it's still hard to believe. She said, for example, that her force-fed psychotropic drugs and a few days kept in captivity. These statements have not found any evidence. How to be in this case? Recognize the true story of Martha whole whole or admit that some parts it still prisochinil?

via factroom.ru