Mental Illness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Mental hospitals shape people, there is no denying that. Put someone in and will they heal and thrive like Susanna Kaysen? Or will they fall victim to the cold hard system like Randy McMurphy? Both films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Girl, Interrupted demonstrate society’s desire to label and push any unique person who does not fit traditional expectations as mentally unstable. Characters like Nurse Ratchet seem detached and uninterested in their patients throwing medications around that most likely ended up hurting their patients rather than helping them just to hold the ruse that they are trying. If medical professionals all acted solely on personal gain then there would be no need for them, mental illness should not be regarded differently from a broken leg, the patient’s well-being should always be the top priority.

McMurphy is a relatively normal man who fakes mental illness in order to escape jail time. All is well and good except for the tiny detail of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse at the hospital who is obsessed with maintaining control through any

Perhaps her cruelest action emotionally ruining Billy, a patient of hers that had recently lost his stutter, to the degree of which he killed himself. Her actions are cruel and deplorable none of which helped anyone but herself. She saw the hospital as her own domain and once it was threatened, she reacted defensively injuring many in the process. Maybe Nurse Ratched, who is often described as frigid and constantly wears a mask, acts the way she does to cover her own illness. The things she says and does are indicative of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, and could even have a smidgen of Antisocial Personality Disorder. It is a theory that Ratched dramatizes the illness of others to distract from her own