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Similarities Between Death Of A Salesman And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Today, mental health is a well-respected and discussed topic. However, this has not always been the case. Wrongful diagnoses and a lack of understanding have long caused much to be dismissed from traditional practices. In Arthur Miller’s work Death of a Salesman, the protagonist, Willy Loman, battles his undiagnosed mental condition throughout the story. Similarly, R. P. McMurphy from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest adamantly denies his possible mental condition and never seems to fully grasp his reasoning for being placed in the psychiatric ward. Both men could have benefited from receiving proper care for their respective conditions; something that would’ve been incredibly advantageous to those affected by their actions.
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The relationship between hallucinations and depression, anxiety, suicidality, schizotypy, and loneliness in BPD has been discovered” (Minarikova). Comparatively, most of Loman’s hallucinations are full-body reminiscences, evident in the elaborate conversations with his long-deceased brother Ben or the football talks with an adolescent version of his eldest son, Biff Loman. These episodes became evident to his family, causing his sons and wife, Linda, to worry greatly about him. Living with a loved one suffering from a mental disorder is extremely taxing on a multitude of levels, especially in this instance, in a time period when mental health was not well documented or for that matter, understood. The play is set in the late 1940s, and while BPD was around, under the name “Manic Depression”, it was not officially recognized as a disorder by the DSM-III until 1980. Considering this, Willy’s family and friends likely had little to no idea how to help …show more content…

Speaking to Biff, Linda brazenly explains that despite whatever Willy is going through, it is their responsibility as his family to provide support for him. While this may not come as a surprise, there are often instances where people have a much less sympathetic approach to mental illness. Sometimes leading to the individual suffering, to take matters into their own hands, instead of receiving the necessary treatment and assistance. The correlation between suicide and mental illness is not a new discovery by any means, and in terms of BDP, “Researchers estimate that between 24% and 60% of people with bipolar disorder will attempt suicide, and between 4% and 19% will successfully commit suicide “ (Alvarado Parkway Institute). 4-19% may seem trivial compared to the 84% of BPD cases that are classified as severe, but any number lost to suicide is a great one. At the end of Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman commits suicide by driving his car at high speed, thus crashing and being killed on impact. After losing his job and falling into tremendous financial debt, Willy most likely thought he did not have much else to live for. His ultimate demise could have also very easily been affected by his BPD, and maybe his suicide could be evidence of a shift from a manic to a depressive state. Another possible conclusion arises in something Willy says to his old friend Charley after being fired from his

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Jesus and Cuckoo's Nest Parallels Jesus Christ led his apostles against a very oppressive government. In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, R.P. McMurphy leads an oppressed group of mental patients against an extremely oppressive medical staff. There are many parallels between R.P. and Jesus Christ. The main similarity is that, even in the face of adversity, both continued to fight for what was right. Additionally, both did not have a selfish personality.

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The Origins of Madness in One Who Flew Off The Cuckoo's Nest The book, One who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is an eccentric story on the cruel treatment of patients within psychiatric wards in the 1960s. It is told from the narration of an indigenous man, named Chief Bromden, a character who is deeply conflicted and wounded inside, as he narrates the story of another patient McMurphy. McMurphy is not like Chief, nor any of the other patients for that matter, for he is a man who refuses to follow the wards rules and does whatever it takes in the book to strip the head nurse, Miss Ratched, of her power, in a fight for the patients, sovereignty within the ward. His rebellious attitude unfolds and the consequences begin unveiling

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Without the right amalgam of medication, therapy, and care from friends and family, a schizophrenic’s condition would worsen to, possibly, the end of their life (Pies 1). Naomi Haskell aided her 19-year old son and his struggle with schizophrenia by driving him everywhere, buying him his own apartment, and helping to make sure he was fine. She did this in hopes of giving him the normal life he deserved (McCrummen). “Naomi starts to cry. If he is feeling better, she knows it might be the start of a manic phase.

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Dawes Leksi Ms. Lawrenson ENG4U 31 May 2018 Rebellion for Better or for Worse It is amazing how humans can subconsciously make connections between things all around them that allow them to have a better understanding of the life that they live in. Well known novels entitled: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey and Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, help the readers understand when both authors portray their similar views on how the system surrounding those suffering with mental illnesses works, in past and recent societies. Within these fictional novels are the ideas of how patients suffering with mental illnesses are mistreated.

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Stereotypes are often frowned upon, yet they are commonly used to form opinions on people and ideas. Some of these stereotypes are about sensitive subjects in today’s society and are not discussed very often. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey does not shy away from controversial topics regarding things like mental illness. The novel revolves around life in a psychiatric hospital and is told through the eyes of a mentally ill man named Chief Bromden. It is seen how difficult it can be to live with mental illness in an environment where stereotypes thrive.

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The prevalence of madness in twentieth-century literature paralleled the scientific and medical advancement of the underlying causes of insanity. At the height of this time period, people with mental diseases were admitted to state hospitals specializing in various psychiatric illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and dementia. Author Ken Kesey addressed this point in his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a groundbreaking book discussing growth, an important human nature that comes in all sizes and shapes. In his book, the patients have different reasons for being in the hospital, but one of the patients, Chief Bromden, is there because of having schizophrenia, a condition which causes him to have difficulty distinguishing between the

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Mental illness has proven to be one of the most controversial topics, leading to a severe stigma surrounding it. In the time that Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was written, people who were rejected and outcast from society for either being gay or too feminine were considered as mentally ill and were placed in mental asylums, similar to the one present in the narrative. These men were judged solely on their lack of masculinity, and were further stripped of this characteristic by the women in the novel. Ken Kesey illustrates that the imbalance of control between genders leads to a continuous power struggle through the symbolism of Nurse Ratched’s uniform, Bromden’s schizophrenic episodes and flashbacks, and the characterization

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Mental Illness affects an immense amount of individuals no matter their race, culture or age. It is everywhere we go, yet still an issue some choose to ignore; whether it is the person facing the illness or those around them. People handle their sickness in a variety of ways. Some by using violence as their only answer, others run away from their issue and majority choose to accept and make the best of it. After reading the novel The Secret Life of Bees, it would be easy to think that the main theme is discrimination or family, but in reality it is actually focused on the toll that mental illness takes on a family.

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In the book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” Ken Kesey shows that the “insanity” of the patients is really just normal insecurities and their label as insane by society is immoral. This appears in the book concerning Billy Bibbits problem with his mom, Harding's problems with his wife, and that the patients are in the ward

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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.

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There is something profoundly disturbing about learning that I have consistently underestimated the extent to which suicide will be part of my professional experience in the mental health field. The fact that twenty-five percent of all providers will be effected by the loss of a client in this manner is both terrifying and humbling for someone whose personal life has been touched by suicide. At the beginning of my education in psychology, I remember the fundamental information disseminated about people with addiction disorders was that they were statistically more likely to attempt suicide than other populations. This fact was expressed in a cool, dismissive and clinical manner that invited neither contemplation nor discussion. To me, the insinuation had always seemed to be that if one made wise career choices, the “suicidal client” might somehow remain relegated to mental health mythology and not part of one’s professional reality.

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In modern society mental health and mental illness are vastly different. It can be distinguished that having a poor mental health does not mean that the person is mentally ill, but you can have a diminishing mental health while also struggling with mental illness. The difference between mental health and mental illness did not exist within the ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; patients considered different conditions as classifications due to a misunderstanding of mental health, causing the lines to be blurred. Oregon was thought to have an advanced mental institution program at the time, but historical demographics reveal otherwise. “Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the majority of those admitted to asylums were patients suffering from "acute" symptoms, but as time went on, practitioners judged an increasing number of patients to be "chronic."” (Cutler).

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Around 8-10 percent of BPD patients actually kill themselves (Bayer 47). In other instances, life long handicaps are results from self-inflicted abuse or failed suicide attempts. Behavioral discrepancies in patients are often brought on by other’s threat of separation and rejection or by an expectation that a BPD patient must undertake greater responsibility (Bayer 47). A pattern of volatile, intense relations regularly accompanies Borderline Personality Disorder (Bayer 45).

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These issues only grow throughout the novel, exposing Willy’s tragic flaw, leading to his vivid memories, and causing his suicide. At the end of the novel, Willy suddenly makes this decision to commit

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