Examples Of Mental Illness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The treatment used in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest had a profound impact on the perception of mental illness and its treatment. The film is set in a mental institution during 1962, a time when mental institutions were overcrowded, and the focus was on managing patients not rehabilitating them. The film portrays this historical reality but in a particularly harsh and brutal manner as the patients are controlled and abused by the staff. The main character Randle McMurphy enters the mental institution for evaluation because he thinks this will be easier than completing his prison sentence. The film questions the definition of sanity, the role of the mental institution, and the medical practices used to treat the

How is insanity defined? Insanity broadly meant a severe mental instability during the timeframe of the movie but the criteria to determine insanity seems very arbitrary. Today insanity is avoided as a psychological term except in the context of a legal defense. Conditions that once fell under the umbrella of insanity are now recognized as treatable and defined conditions like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. In the movie, McMurphy and the doctor discuss why he’s there. The doctor asks him directly if he believes there is anything wrong with his mind and McMurphy, replies, “Not a thing.” The evaluation is recommended for ridiculous reasons like he talked when not allowed, he is lazy, and because they believe he is faking illness to avoid hard labor. These are rebellious behaviors and it is hard to imagine that any of these behaviors could be equated to mental illness. Even during the evaluation period without any diagnosis, McMurphy is treated with unknown medications and the rigid control meant to dehumanize the patients. After three weeks of evaluation, the doctors conclude that while he is difficult, McMurphy shows no signs of mental illness.

Medication initially was used as chemical restraint to make patients calm and compliant just like in the film. Other treatments were abused and used as punishment especially ECT. Most patients were terrified of ECT and the threat alone exerted control. Much of the stigma even today about ECT stems from the scene where the electroshock therapy is used as a violent and inhumane punishment for McMurphy as the audience watches while he convulses and thrashes in pain. ECT was physically dangerous when first developed. Now there are ways to mitigate those risks using muscle relaxants to avoid the physical harm of a seizure and anesthesia to avoid pain. McMurphy's ultimate fate, a lobotomy is a neurosurgical operation that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal lobe that would often leave patients brain-dead and catatonic. that would often leave patients brain-dead and catatonic. The prefrontal lobe is responsible for emotions and personality. Many mental institutions were overcrowded and chaotic, so doctors could maintain control over the patients by giving the unruly patients lobotomies which is exactly what happens to McMurphy, a rambunctious but sane