One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Psychology

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In the state of Oregon , Nurse ratched operates a hospital, a mental institution for the mentally ill. In the hospital nurse ratched has total control of her patients manipulating them to do as she pleases and stripping them of their bathroom privileges or medication if she decides they misbehaved or displease her. The patients, institutionalized, admit themselves into the mental institution sacrificing their freedom and “sanity” for the safety of confinement . But what separates the so called mentally ill from the manipulative nurse ratched, or any other “normal” person? In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Milos Forman in 1975, He reveals the-madness, thin line between “normal” and “abnormal” Through characters such as the …show more content…

Nurse ratched character is a perfect example of the superego. When Billy Bibbit, one of the mental patients, commits suicide, nurse ratched delivers the line “Now calm down. The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine.” Nurse Ratched’s need to go on with the routine in a quiet orderly way reveals nurse ratched’s superego tendencies and further supports the theme of madness. Nurse Ratched’s cold, heartless reaction to Billy’s death is truly abnormal. The line grows thinner and one is not sure who is more insane Nurse Ratched or her mentally ill …show more content…

McMurphy, wild and confident, is first introduced when he is admitted to the hospital. McMurphy acts as a symbol of freedom and is a complete contrast to nurse ratched's oppressed ward. “ Jesus, I mean, you guys do nothing but complain about how you can't stand it in this place here and you don't have the guts just to walk out? What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it.” Again the line between abnormal and normal is being drawn thinner. McMurphy believes that the patients at the hospital are not so crazy as they make themselves to be and that the only thing stopping them from living in a regular society is fear. In the end Nurse Ratched sentences McMurphy to a frontal lobotomy leaving him paralyzed. This can be seen as a sacrifice, McMurphy gave up his sanity in order to inspire and convince the patients of the hospital of their sanity.. Again the idea of normalness is challenged when nurse ratched sentences McMurphy to a lobotomy leaving her morals and sanity in

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