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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a 1975 film based on the novel of the same name. The film addresses multiple themes related to the ineffectiveness of mental health treatment models and the ironies inherent in attempts to control or modify deviant behavior. Although set in a mental institution, protagonist Randle McMurphy has been processed through the criminal justice system. Therefore, the film also reveals the intersections between criminal justice and mental health. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has also been instrumental at altering public perceptions of both mental illness and the institutionalization of psychiatric treatments. One study shows how the film increased negative attitudes towards both mental health care and mental illness (Domino, 1983). In fact, the film does effectively demonstrate some of the shortcomings of mental health treatment that have changed due to an increased interest in ethical and evidence-based care.
Multiple types of mental illness are portrayed in One Flew, although diagnoses and mental health classifications are not central to the story. The protagonist McMurphy is likely not mentally ill at all; he is simply someone who exhibits misogynistic attitudes and some forms of deviant and aggressive behavior. Because of the lack of formalized assessment and diagnostic...
The lobotomy leaves McMurphy in a catatonic state. Interestingly, the Chief appears to have been committed to the mental institution for a state of mind akin to catatonia given his unwillingness to talk. Only McMurphy and him form a bond that reveals the Chief is consciously choosing silence as a mode of social protest, and like McMurphy, may not be mentally ill at all but simply unwilling to conform to societal norms.
On the other hand, McMurphy might have an undiagnosed condition like antisocial personality disorder. His inability to feel remorse for the crimes he has committed in the past, his misogyny, and his eventually trying to kill Nurse Ratchett all point to a potential diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. The Chief is a more complex character and one whose flat affect, his lack of emotional expression, may point to schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder (“Personality Disorders,” n.d.). Nurse Ratchett also demonstrates problematic behaviors, including hostility towards patients.…
References
Domino, G. (1983). Impact of the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, on attitudes towards mental illness. Psychological Reports 53(1): 179-182.
Forman, M. (Director). (1975). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. [Motion picture]. United States: Fantasy Films.
“Personality Disorders,” (n.d.). MayoClinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/symptoms-causes/syc-20354463
Summary: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest This particular film is about Randle McMurphy, a criminal who upon serving a brief stint in prison for rape pleads insanity and is relayed to a mental institution. On being moved to the said institution, McMurphy rallies up colleagues (the rest of the patients) against a harsh and cruel nurse. The film is based on a novel by the same name. One of the psychiatric
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Independent films have become such a mainstay of American cinema that it is difficult to tell what should be considered independent and what should be considered a major production these days. Small, independent film studios can gain such a following that they are soon producing movies that are seen by millions. Of course, this was not always the case because the reason there are indie
For his trouble, Murphy receives a frontal lobotomy as a "treatment" for his unwillingness to cooperate and abide by the rules and norms, a touch that gives him a Christ-like quality that gives his ultimate fate as that of a martyr to the cause of the promotion of humanity. Indeed, humanity is ultimately indebted to those brave few in the human race who defiantly dare to confront and challenge
REFERENCES One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest. (1990). Retrieved October 2010, from Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/ One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (2010, January). Retrieved October 2010, from AMC Greatest Films Filmsite: http://www.filmsite.org/onef.html Cooper, C. (2001, April). Modern Literature's Depiction of Nervous Ailments. Retrieved October 2010, from Literature Study Online: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/bellow_kesey.html Kubler-Ross, E. (2005). On Grief and Grieving: Finding the meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. New York: Simon and Schuster. Madden,
Lobotomy is a popular medical procedure introduced in curing mentally ill individuals, which requires the removal of the prefrontal lobes of the cortex of the brain, the part of the brain wherein aggressive and violent behavior is triggered. However, in the movie, lobotomy is shown to have disastrous results: McMurphy's violent behavior is indeed abated, but as illustrated in the movie, the lobotomy had turned him into a 'vegetable'
When one thinks about Freud's theory one has to presume Freud's conscious thoughts or his theory regarding an Oedipus complex represents not his real thoughts but his defensive condensations, displacements, reversals, omissions, and distortions of his real thoughts. If one wishes to look inside his real thoughts regarding an Oedipus complex, one has to analyze and interpret the manifest content of his thought with these defenses in mind. According to