Psycho Therapeutic Encounter
In the world of psychology, therapy is an important part in helping patients to accept the different issues they are dealing with. Over the years, various techniques and tactics have been used with numerous degrees of success. The film One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is the classic example of this. It is focused on how a mental institution is run during the 1960s and the way various forms of therapy are having an effect on patients. To fully understand what is happening requires describing / analyzing the therapeutic process, important skills used by mental health professionals and their impact. Together, these different elements will show the way certain disciplines will influence the quality of care provided to patients. (Douglas & Foreman, 1975)
Background One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is focusing on the experiences andal McMurphy goes through. He is sent to a…...
mlaReferences
Domino, G. (1983). Impact of the Film. Psychological Reports, 53, 179 -- 182.
Douglas, M. (Producer), & Forman, M. (Director). (1975). One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest [Motion Picture]. USA: United Artists.
Melo, M. (2007). Executing the Criminally Ill. Criminal Justice, 22, 30 -- 39
Neubauer, J. (2011). One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Arcadia, 46 (11), 214- 221
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…...
mlaReferences
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
Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest offers an ironic portrayal of mental health and mental illness. The story of Randle McMurphy, told through the eyes and ears of Chief Bromden, shows how restrictive social norms and behavioral constraints are what cause mental illness. Mental illness and deviance are socially constructed. The men in the institution have been labeled as deviants, many of them as criminals too. Yet Kesey shows how the institution is the real problem, not mental illness. Nurse Ratched symbolizes oppression and social control, with Randle McMurphy as her foil. McMurphy is no angel, but he helps the institutional inmates to gain a broader understanding of both their own psyche and of the ways society has essentially made them insane. Furthermore, Kesey shows that of the main ways society and its institutions enforce social conformity is through the process of shaming. Shaming is a method…...
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is set in a mental hospital in the 1960's. The main character, Randle Partick McMurphy has conned his way into the hospital trying to get an easier sentence from his most recent encounter with the law. There he discovers life is no picnic for the patients, mainly due to the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, who runs the wards more like torture rooms than a hospital. Chief Bromden is a six foot two Indian who has pretended to be deaf and dumb for the past thirty years. The story is told in first person narration by Bromden (Kesey 1979).
McMurphy rebels against Nurse Ratched and her ward rules every chance he gets and soon rallies the other men, who cower under her charge, to challenge her. Bromden begins to speaks again. McMurphy also takes up their causes as…...
mlaWorks Cited
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Penguin USA. July 1979.
Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey was written after its author worked as an orderly in a psychiatric ward. Yet the novel also demonstrates significant research that manages to elevate it to the level of a serious critique. Published in 1962, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is thus an artistic contribution to that decade's emerging critique of societal handling of mental illness, a loose affiliation of scholarly critics that would include the British psychiatrist R.D. Laing and Canadian sociologist Erving Goffmann and would in 1967 be collectively nicknamed the "anti-psychiatry movement." I think we can understand Kesey's role in this movement by focusing on the narrator of his novel, Chief Bromden. By examining Kesey's handling of Bromden's mental state, both as medical fact and as metaphorical device, the novel's criticism of psychiatry in its year of publication may be seen as part of a larger…...
mlaWorks Cited
Hofstadter, Richard. The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays. New York: Vintage, 1964. Print.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Viking, 1962. Print.
Neyraut-Sutterman, Marie-Therese. "On the Origin of the 'Influencing Machine' in Schizophrenia." International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, Online. Accessed 15 April 2011 at: http://www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/origin-influencing-machine-schizophrenia
Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Lippincott, 1966.
Flew ver 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. f course, this was not always the case because the reason there are indie films is because of the rebellion over the control of the large studios. In the case of the movie "ne Flew ver the Cuckoo's Nest" it was an indie film, but it was seen by a large audience. Like many indie films of that time and this though, it had a flare that could not be seen in major motion pictures. Since major motion picture studios were interested more in the bottom line and worried about turning a profit for…...
mlaOne only has to look at history to see the fallacy perpetrated by major motion picture studios. "They Died with Their Boots On" is a retelling of the story of the Little Bighorn massacre which starred Errol Flynn and was released by the major motion picture company Warner Bros. The movie makes a hero of Custer as he tries to run down Sitting Bull and a corrupt, gun-selling Indian agent. The picture is factually inaccurate from start to finish and perpetuates the myth that Custer was the honorable one at Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull is seen as an opportunist and a rebel who only wants to kill white people. This sort of movie was immensely popular (released in 1949) because, although everyone knew it was probably a biased retelling, it had a distinct hero and a villain (there were actually later movies which had Sitting Bull as the hero which is also factually inaccurate). Although the movie is enjoyable when an individual wants to spend a mind-numbing few hours in front of the TV, it is also a symbol of why many people were tired of major motion pictures, and why indie films have gained the traction that they currently have. A true telling of the story would reveal that neither was a hero, but that Custer, as a glory-seeker and narcissist, sacrificed his troop on a fool's errand.
In recent times, major motion picture studios have gotten the message, at least partially, that people crave a little more reality. That is why big name releases such as "American History X" and "American Beauty" were released by New Line Cinema and Dream Works respectively. These are considered indie film companies, but they are that in name only. These are both major studios that are producing edgy movies under an indie tag. Both of the releases mentioned above were both critical and box office successes because they were edgy. Another film that shows the influence that indie films has had is "Unforgiven." This is not a classic Western that has a distinct white-hatted good guy and a black hat wearing bad guy. The lines are blurred between the sheriff and the ex-outlaw. Some of the things Eastwood's outlaw character does are good, and some are not. The same can be said of Hackman's sheriff character.
These movies seem to rely on the success of such movies as "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest." Because movie producers could see a major shift in the way they viewed edgy movies, the large motion picture studios changed the way they made movies. The money shifted, so the movie makers did also.
It is through this opportunity that the novelist reveals the extent to which Nurse Ratchet actually dominates the rest of the staff as much as she dominates the daily lives of the patients. In some ways, she represents the hypocrisy of mental institutions, especially in that day and age. Specifically, the outward appearance of the institution and of all of its employees (including the nurses) is perfectly clean and sanitary and (as represented by the white uniforms), innocence. Nurse Ratched, in particular, is polite and proper to a fault and obviously masking the true dark nature of her character. In reality, Ratchet is cold-hearted person who deliberately enforces arbitrary decisions and rules even though she has the authority to make relatively meaningless and harmless adjustments that would improve the daily life and circumstances of her patients.
Initially, McMurphy takes everything that happens somewhat lightly and he is a constant source…...
Despite his being the most lucid among the inmates, he was still not immune to psychiatric intervention that led to his eventual defeat against Nurse atched. This makes society all the more oppressive, not accepting any dissent or differing perspective and eliminating those it cannot subdue. Thus, the story resonates Szasz's argument that mental illness is a myth and that psychiatry is a practice masquerading as a science to exert control over behavior by medical treatment that do not necessarily have physio-biological bases.
Disturbing as it is, both book and movie teaches the valuable lesson that even so-called social misfits or people relegated to being mentally deranged do find their sense of self given the right motivations and under positive and uplifting circumstances. McMurphy's character highlights the need for man to challenge the norm, not necessarily for the benefit of the self but more so for others. In his journey…...
mlaReferences
Faggen, Robert. "Introduction." One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey. : Penguin Classics, . ix-xxvi.
Goodwin, Susan and Becky Bradley. "1960-1969." American Cultural History. 2008. Lone Star College-Kingwood Library. 28 April 2009
Leifer, Ron. "Critique of Medical-Coercive Psychiatry." The Thomas S. Szasz, M.D. Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility. 2001. Ithaca, New York. 28 April 2009
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 the conventional thinking patterns and then willingly (or unwillingly) suffer the ultimate price for their ideals (McEver, 1998).
To recap, the author in this paper, has will applied sociological concepts such as groupthink, doublespeak and doublethink, and sociological experiments that speak to us as social groups about socialization and religion in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Although this book was originally made for entertainment purposes, this author finds that it is a key factor in the learning…...
mlaWorks Cited
Anderson, M. (2003). 'one flew over the psychiatric unit': mental illness and the media.
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 10, 297 -- 306.
Kesey, K. (1962). One flew over the cuckoo's nest. New York, NY: Signet.
Lena, H., & London, B. (1979). An introduction to sociology through fiction using
inston is impressed by a man named O'Brien who is supposed to be very powerful member of the party, but he believes in his heart that O'Brien is actually a member of the Brotherhood which is a group dedicated to overthrowing the Party (Orwell, 1977).
inston looks to O'Brien in the same way that Bromend looks to McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. O'Brien is someone that inston comes to admire and follow.
He is still afraid to rebel himself at first. He has thought crimes about the way he is paid to change the history books so they will fit the Party's version of history but he is afraid to speak up about his own memories which tell a completely different story.
inston uses every evening to walk through the poor neighborhoods where the lowest members of society live. They live extremely poverty stricken lives but because they are so…...
mlaWorks Cited
Kesey, Ken (1963) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Paperback)
Publisher: Signet; Reissue edition (February 1, 1963)
Orwell, George (1977) 1984 (Signet Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)
Publisher: Signet Classics; Reissue edition (July 1, 1977)
The fog is actually generated by two painful experiences in Chief's past: first, the fog in his mind is a recurrence of the brain treatments ordered by Nurse Ratched, and secondly, the fog is a direct reference to the actual fog machine of World War II operated by military intelligence in order to obscure what was occurring on the airfield (Lupack 70) as Chief recalls: "Whenever intelligence figured there might be a bombing attack, or if the generals had something secret they wanted to pull -- out of sight, hid so good that even the spies on the base couldn't see what went on -- they fogged the field" (Kesey 116).
Generally speaking, the themes of a particular novel cannot be fully understood outside the social context of the plot. This also largely applies to "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" whose plot is set in the 1950s which also…...
mlaSources:
Kesey, Ken. One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Penguin Classics, 2003.
Ferrell, William K. "A Search for Laughter: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Literature and Film as Modern Mythology. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2000. 75-85.
Tepa Lupack, Barbara. "Hail to the Chief: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Insanity as Redemption in Contemporary American Fiction: Inmates Running the Asylum. University Press of Florida, 1995. 63-99.
Valentine, Virginia. "Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Explicator 41.1 (1982): 58-59.
He is the narrator of the novel, so the reader is privileged to understand how sane he really is, despite the fact he has been subjected to horrible electroshock treatments, which are administered more as punishments than as treatment.
Chief Bromden is diagnosed as paranoid, although he really seems to see things more clearly than anyone else on the ward, even McMurphy. The Chief does show some features of mental illness, however. He often sees things in a fog, and has trouble feeling emotionally connected to disturbing events at first. He begins the novel unable to laugh, smile, or remember much of his past, and he has very disturbing dreams. His watchfulness, however, makes him a good rather than an unreliable narrator, despite his mental problems.
Chief Bromden says that the hospital is not a place to make people saner, but to encourage people to conform and to fit into an…...
Once again, research reveals a healthcare setting where professionals are supposed to be trained to help those with mental deficiencies. But something is wrong here. This is not comparable with Cuckoo's Nest, but it reflects bad management, which leads - at the very least - to poor service at the patient level, and at worst, brutal abuses of the kind that were seen in Cuckoo's Nest.
Doctors, nurses and medical students in nursing and doctor training are pivotal actors in the fight to detect, prevent, and somehow manage substance abuse among patients; that is a given when it comes to mental health services across the board. But in London a recent study reveals that "...many doctors and nurses can have a negative attitude towards the management of drug and alcohol problems" of patients and of their own community of professionals (O'Gara, et al., 2005, p. 328). Doctors themselves "are at…...
mlaWorks Cited
Associated Press. (2008). "Chinese paper: Gov't critics sent to mental wards."
International Herald Tribune. Retrieved December 7, 2008, at http://www.iht.com .
Gold, Stanley. "One flew over the cuckoo's nest." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 37.1 (2003): 115-118.
O'Gara, Colin, Keaney, Francis, Best, David, Harris, Jennifer, Boys, Annabel, Leonard,
EFEENCES
One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest. (1990). etrieved October 2010, from Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (2010, January). etrieved October 2010, from AMC Greatest Films Filmsite: http://www.filmsite.org/onef.html
Cooper, C. (2001, April). Modern Literature's Depiction of Nervous Ailments. etrieved October 2010, from Literature Study Online: http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/bellow_kesey.html
Kubler-oss, E. (2005). On Grief and Grieving: Finding the meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Madden, F. (1986). Sanity and esponsibility: Big Chief as narrator and Executioner. Modern Fiction Studies, 32(2), 203-17.
Perring, C. (2003, March). eview - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. etrieved October 2010, from Metapsychology: http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=book&id=1849...
mlaREFERENCES
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.
It takes an encounter with madness to appreciate the finer things in life and through successful characterization, Kesey brings this issue to the forefront. The struggle between man and those wishing to control him is not new because it is intrinsically human to desire freedom. hen we are caged, we rebel, even if that rebellion comes with a high price. McMurphy emerges triumphant because he demonstrates to the other men that they can be free and they do not have to let the system crush them. Bromden is heroic as well, because he discovers himself after a long separation from who he actually is. He would have never taken the steps he did without McMurphy and his antics. They are modern-day heroes fighting the age-old war of man vs. authority.
orks Cited
Fick, Thomas. "The Hipster, the Hero, and the Psychic Frontier in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'" Rocky Mountain…...
mlaWorks Cited
Fick, Thomas. "The Hipster, the Hero, and the Psychic Frontier in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'" Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. 1989. JSTOR Resource Database. Information Retrieved December 01, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1347186
Faggen, Robert. Introduction: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Penguin Classics. 2003.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Signet Books. 1962.
Ware, Elaine. "The Vanishing American: Identity Crisis in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." MELUS. 1986. JSTOR Resource Database. Information Retrieved December 01, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/467185
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