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Similarities Between Girl Interrupted And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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The films Girl, Interrupted and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gave a glimpse into the conditions and treatments used in the 1960s and 1970s in mental health institutions. Both films follow the struggles of two individuals and give insight into the psychological health field. Each film demonstrated some accurate but also inaccurate portrayals of the treatment and conditions that patients received and lived in while staying at these facilities. Girl, Interrupted is a film that focused on the institutionalization of the main character, Susanna Kaysen, and her time that was spent at Claymore Mental Institution. Susanna’s initial cause for hospitalization was due to an aspirin overdose and consequently being accused of trying to commit suicide. …show more content…

A noticeable theme that depicted mental health institutions correctly during this time was the presence of having hospitalization is voluntary. In this movie although Susanna and other patients may have been encouraged to seek help, it was ultimately their decision whether or not to proceed. However, although it was voluntary whether or not people sought help, according to our lecture, in the late 1950s the process of deinstitutionalization was very common, this film being in the 1960s did not show any signs of this whereas people were being more encouraged to check into a mental institution instead of them being shut …show more content…

I believe that the job of being a nurse in Girl, Interrupted would have been much easier and rewarding. The allowance of interaction between nurses and patients would have made working at Claymore a much more enjoyable and rewarding job, and one that you would see improvement first hand. Being a nurse at the hospital at One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest appeared that it would have been much more challenging. The nurses shown there were much more task oriented then trying to interact with patients or stimulate different methods of treatment. The home-like feel of Claymore compared to that of a prison-like feel gave the impression of a much healthier work environment and one that promoted

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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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Through the institutions, patients had less freedom, were forced to do activities, had no say in their treatments, and had to be helped with everyday tasks. The lifestyle in mental hospitals corresponded with American life in the 1950’s and early 1960’s because the mental hospitals encouraged conformity. Even though the Beat Generation’s ideals would have been seen as outrageous in the 1950’s and 1960’s, their beliefs rejected conformity and encouraged a new lifestyle for

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He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in

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In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, Susanna is told that she is mentally ill. They treat her for borderline personality disorder when she does not feel that she has any mental illness at all. When she arrives at the institution she feels as though she does not fit in as she does not see herself as crazy. In Kaysen’s memoir, she is being hyper-treated by the doctors and nurses

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898 Words | 4 Pages

It is known fact that up until recently those placed into mental institutions suffering from various illnesses have been treated poorly. Those who were subject to the torment of shock therapy and sedative drugs in the sixties and seventies know the pain of living in a cognitive institution. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), directed by Milos Forman, came out in the era of scandals revealing the awful conditions found in mental hospitals. However, this film does not focus on the living situation in the hospital, but funnels its efforts to look deeper into the characters that inhabit the establishment. This movie fights the ideas of conformity and protests for the right of free thinking all while presenting it in an accessible way for the populous.

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When stepping inside a hospital to receive help, one should expect care, treatment, and respect. However, shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and “Howl,” American society equates mental illness with inhumanity. In both texts, the characters are forced to live without basic human freedoms and a voice to change it. Society pressures the mentally ill into becoming submissive counterparts of the community by stripping away their physical freedoms, forcing inhumane treatment, and depriving them the freedom of expression. By pressuring confinement and treating the patients inhumanely, society strips away their freedom to express themselves.

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Randle McMurphy vs. Alex Novels of similar genres usually share very similar characteristics. The main characters in the novels are often very similar as well. But, it is the differences that make each novel special and worth the read. In my novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the main character Randle McMurphy shares many similar characteristics with the main character in the novel A Clockwork Orange, Alex. While they share many similarities, the differences are what make the novels both such exciting and dynamic reads.

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While an older piece of media, the topic is still very relevant today. It has a very touching storyline, revolving around institutionalised psychological patients having their rights taken away. A prominent theme in this novel is inhumane mental health

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Analysis Before I even began to read O’Brien (2011), I had already made the assumption that the content was filled with horror stories about her days spent in a mental hospital. After reading the title, I prepared myself for the stories of abuse, neglect, over medication, thoughts of suicide, and calls for help. O’Brien (2011) outlined her typical day in the mental hospital where she had been staying and to my surprise, she concluded by clearing the stereotype known by many about mental hospitals. I found the first fifty-five minutes of her day to be quite depressing myself.

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Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen The book Girl interrupted is a humorous nonfiction Autobiographical book about the author Susanna Kaysen experience in side a mental intuition with others in which she encountered. The story takes place in 1967 Massachusetts inside McLean Hospital. Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a mental institution after visiting her psychiatrist and discovers she is having a problem and offers her a place to “rest”. She plans on staying just a few weeks but ends up stay a total of 18 months were she meets many of other mental ill patients and is later diagnosis with Borderline Personality Disorder.

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The doctor suggests that combining a bottle of aspirin with vodka was a suicide attempt. Susanna does deny this but he recommends a short period of rest at Claymoore. Claymoore is a private mental hospital full of mentally unfit women. Susanna plans to stay only a few weeks, but she ends up staying almost nearly two years. Some of the patients include: Georgina is a pathological liar, Polly who has been badly scarred by fire, Daisy who will not eat in the presence of other people.

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Psychoanalysts’ understand human personality through behaviors by looking into experiences, including the origin of emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Through the analysis of the movie Girl, Interrupted, many of the characters behave in all sorts of manners, ranging from being unreasonable, frightened, happy, sad, or disturbed due to their varieties of behaviors. All the characters include different ailments that affect the way they act, respond, and interpret situations. In accordance with personality theories, the movie Girl, Interrupted explores the memoir of a young woman through personality disorders, traits, and humanism during her stay in a McLean psychiatric institution during the 1960’s. Susanna Kaysen, the protagonist, is diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder, due to her attempt at suicide by consuming an entire bottle of alcohol with aspirin.

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Even of the patients are mentally disable and some cant express clearly, they still manage to form a strong social bond with the regular people. During the 1970’s President Kennedy passed a health reform act in which psychiatry was reevaluated, and insane asylums were shutting down. The given number 160,000 was lowest at the time as more asylums designed to isolate patients were converting to a therapeutic haling centers

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539 Words | 3 Pages

Girl, Interrupted, written by Susanna Kaysen in 1967, is a thought provoking memoir following her and fellow parents’ tragic and twisted experiences in McLean Mental Hospital. As a young adult Susanna Kaysen tried to commit suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills and following it with a bottle of alcohol. Her parents were very worried about her and suggested her to go to a doctor that her dad once knew. Kaysen visited the doctor who, after talking to her for a while, requested that she be sent to one of the best mental hospitals in her area. She had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

In the movie I saw many disorder with all the women within the mental institution but I also notice the amount of pills the women were given. I found out the psychological term for this was Psychopharmacology.

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