ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Anxiety Disorders

1268 Words6 Pages

Anxiety Disorders Imagine being so afraid of something that it changes how you live your life? That is called a phobia. Phobias are part of a group of mental illnesses called anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders include many different illnesses as well. The treatment for these illnesses is very different today than it was during the 1950’s. These disorders have been demonstrated in the media many times throughout history. Anxiety disorders have many frightening symptoms, were treated in many ways, and can be seen in characters from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.
Illnesses in this category include phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Posttraumatic stress disorder. These illnesses can be caused by many factors that include …show more content…

It became popular during that time because it was a cheap and easy way to treat mental illness. In the article “Electroconvulsive Therapy” the author points out that electric shock therapy was being abused in the 1950’s in order to punish patients who caused trouble in the ward (Electroconvulsive therapy). The 1950’s made many people believe that electric shock therapy is not useful even though it does help patients who have no other options for treatment. Media also made many believe that electric shock therapy was often used just to punish patients. For example, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, McMurphy is the leading character that often acts out against Nurse Ratched. After fighting with some of the “black boys”, he is sent to the “shock shop” to receive electric shock therapy because he was defending his friend George. That is only one example of many from the book where patients have been forced to receive electric shock therapy as a punishment. The only risks are disturbances in heart rhythm and memory loss. Rebecca J. Frey also explains that today anxiety disorders are treated with medication, psychotherapy or both. All depending on the severity of the disorder (Anxiety Disorders). This means that having an extremely severe anxiety disorder will not be treatable with these methods. However, if a patient has a mild form of an anxiety disorder it can be treated by these methods and will help alleviate the symptoms. The medications used for treatment are antidepressants, antianxiety and beta blocker drugs. To test the effectiveness of the medication, a patient is put on a 6 to 8 week plan on that certain medication. This method seems to be the most effective for mild anxiety. These treatments are very important and have helped many people around the world. Prevention is not possible but treatment for the disorder is the best that modern medicine has found.

Show More
Related
252 Words | 2 Pages

“Electroconvulsive Therapy: The Second Most Controversial Medical Procedure,” by Charles H. Kellner, MD, briefly compares the electroconvulsive therapy debate, also called ECT or shock therapy, to abortion. Kellner discusses the argument supporting shock therapy and how the opposing argument is often invalid. Both are highly controversial with opposers who attempt discrediting practitioners and the practices themselves. Also, methods of performing abortions and shock therapy are slightly touched on or not taught in medical schools. Most are aware of abortion, but many, including some psychiatrists, are surprised ECT is still used in medicine.

Read More
453 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the patients talked in fear of the “Shock Shop,” the nickname given to the Electro Shock Therapy machine. If a patient tries to rebel against the system at the hospital, they are sent to the “Shock Shop” where they are quickly fixed by the harsh device. The threat of the “Shock Shop” usually keeps the patients at bay, but every once in while someone is sent for Electro Shock Therapy. Nurse Ratched keeps order in the hospital by displaying these rebellious individuals where everyone can see the cruel effects of the “Shock Shop.” However, the “Shock Shop” and its victims symbolize something much greater than just a machine.

Read More
1420 Words | 6 Pages

Fear is within everybody in the world, nobody can escape it and nobody can avoid encountering it. Fear can define many things: being unable to talk to others, having a rush of adrenaline because something is frightening , or just the fact that the task at hand is too hard to handle and someone could potentially yell at someone for not completing it. Fear is the main element in both the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest and the film The Ward. Being in a mental ward is not as bad as many people say so, only until meeting certain people there, is when people change their whole perspective on it. The way it is presented to people and the thought of being in a mental ward makes people feel more fear within themselves.

Read More
1242 Words | 5 Pages

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder are found to have unrealistic view of danger. Many of them fear being in pain, harmed and have repeated thoughts of death, suffering in pain, being in danger and getting damaged mentally and physically in anyway. Psychodynamic ? Caused from our psychological alerting mechanism that arises when patient 's unconscious motivations clash with the conscious mind of the patient. Environmental ?

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Ken Kesey’s Relationship with Mental Institutions and its Effect on His Novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey is known as one of the most exceptional American authors of the twentieth century, producing novels such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion. Throughout his lifetime, he had toiled with many different mental health issues that influenced his writings and views on problems in the world. Specifically in One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey sets the story in an insane asylum with the characters as patients. A connection between Kesey’s mental health, a mental institution background, and his novel is found throughout the story. The novel was released during the height of insane asylums and the controversy over how effective locking up inpatients is.

Read More
239 Words | 1 Pages

Chapters 4 & 5 discuss anxiety, phobias, disorders of trauma, and stress. Anxiety is described a vague sense of being in danger. (Comer, 2014) Anxiety takes many forms. One form is generalized anxiety, in which one experiences anxiety in most circumstances. Anxiety can be treated by through therapy and aided through benzodiazepine medications.

Read More
1476 Words | 6 Pages

Published in 1962, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of Patrick McMurphy, a newly-admitted patient at a psychiatric hospital where individuals with various mental conditions are treated. Run primarily by Nurse Ratched, a demeaning autocrat who exhibits complete control over others, the patients are subjected to various forms of treatments and therapy with the intent of rehabilitation (Kesey 5). Most forms of treatment depicted in Kesey’s novel, such as group therapy, are an accurate representation of what typical psychiatric patients may encounter while under care at a mental facility. Yet others, particularly electroshock therapy and lobotomies, were quite controversial at the time of the novel’s publication. Such treatments were questioned for their effectiveness at improving patients’ condition – and while these procedures were still occasionally performed at the time, they often did not benefit the treated individual.

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

The researches describe a variety of different disorders such as, panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorders (GAD), and posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD). One of the studies discussed in this article was a Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The symptoms found with this specific anxiety disorder is being easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, irritability, and feeling on the “edge” with daily activities. The diagnosis for GAD requires for these types of symptoms to be present in a patient for more than 6 months to determine it is not just stress-induced anxiety. This study also found that the treatment of GAD is similar to all other anxiety disorders by using antidepressants and psychotherapy.

Read More
1588 Words | 7 Pages

There are also examples of how certain anxious tendencies can be learned, contributing to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. We will then examine the treatments for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as recommended by experts in both fields; through Psychanalysis for the Psychoanalytic theory, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for Behavioral

Read More
1100 Words | 5 Pages

General anxiety disorder is a psychological disorder portrayed by consistent, intrusive thoughts of worry coupled with the physical symptoms of anxiety. Statistically, people who have higher chances of developing this disorder are women and the older portion of the population. Symptoms commonly reported consist of racing heart, dry mouth, upset stomach, muscle tension, sweating, trembling, irritability, sleeping problems, hypervigilance, restlessness or feeling on edge, tiring easily, difficulty concentrating, feelings of hopelessness, constant worry, and nervousness. Patients typically are prone to developing substance use disorders, alcohol dependence, and major depression. GAD sufferers continuously respond to fears by unconsciously triggering

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie focused on the aspects of mental institutions and what goes on there. The main character, Mac McMurphy, is a patient until they determine his sanity. Unfortunately, like in many other hospitals, this institution is corrupted in the way that persuades the patients that they are unable to function outside of the hospital. They are also told that any disruptive behavior represents illness, and those who are ill get treated with electroshock therapy. The patients are controlled by an underlying, unspoken fear to disobey, which is illustrated in many forms throughout the hospital.

Read More
2351 Words | 10 Pages

Abstract Generalized Anxiety Disorder, commonly called (GAD) can affect anyone at any age. One needs to understand why General Anxiety disorder is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). What can cause general anxiety disorder as well as its originality? How a client/patient that is suffering from general anxiety disorder can seek treatment, as what if and the preventive measures may be. If there are any differences between cultures that may help or hinder treatment, causes or preventive measures, if one culture or gender is more likely to suffer from general anxiety disorder over another.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

Anxiety is one of the disorders that is hard to control since it all happens within ourselves and is all mentally in us. Therefore, people dealing with this issue should either consult a psychiatrist to cure the fear that they have. On the other hand, if this is not accessible they can be prescribed to medications that will help calm down their feelings and emotions. Another medical treatment that is available for schizophrenia is to seek medical aid for your physical being, to go see a psychiatrist so they can see the ways of curing the state of your mental disability and lastly to be prescribed to medications. These medications will control the emotion of the individual and the activities that are happening in their brain due to this

Read More
1540 Words | 7 Pages

There are many different types of anxiety disorders. 1. Some of the different types of anxiety are panic disorder, agoraphobia, stress, PTSD, and generalized anxiety. a. PTSD is also known as post traumatic stress disorder. b.

Read More
998 Words | 4 Pages

All of them hinder daily life if you do not know how to control the stress or have simple triggers. They are two kinds of anxiety: genetically acquired anxiety and phobias comes from ones personal experiences. Fear is a natural defense mechanism that the body has to survive. We all have fears but not usually enough to cause problems. Phobia is the most common known anxiety.

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Anxiety Disorders

Related Topics

Open Document