One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Psychology

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1. Summary of the Story One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film based on Jack Nicholson who plays a rebellious Randall P. (Douglas 1975) McMurphy who gets sent to a mental hospital because he was acting belligerent at the farm he worked on. After arrival at the mental hospital, he receives a psychological analysis from Dr. Speedy to determine if he is mentally ill. McMurphy goes in to the hospital thinking that he is sane, and will be out in no time, but the Doctor suddenly explains that he needs to be kept in the hospital until they can determine the necessary treatment for him. McMurphy displays many signs of antisocial personality including irresponsibility, disregard for others, impulsivity, and manipulation. (Nevid, Greene, Johnson, …show more content…

In the hospital McMurphy meets his match Nurse Ratchet, who both go toe-to-toe while trying to get the best out of one another. McMurphy is treated with many controversial therapies for his disorder such as group-therapy, electroconvulsive therapy and ultimately a pre-frontal lobotomy. Mr. McMurphy’s fun loving dominating personality brings out the free spirit of the other patients and eventually teaches them what life is all about. McMurphy’s rebellious demeanour, charming personality and strong leadership skills gets the other patients to believe his devious style in the mental institute. In all the patients mind, McMurphy was their hero and even in the end of the movie, he lead them all to believe he escaped. Although he dies, McMurphy changes the way the mental institution operates, and eventually gets the best out of …show more content…

In the mental institution he failed to comply with many social norms, and he constantly disrespected the rules of the institution. Along with this, another dominating sign of this personality disorder was that he was very impulsive and managed to disregard the safety and rights of others. McMurphy showed this when he managed to steal the patients away from the institution to go on a fishing trip without written permission. (Douglas, 1975) Another major symptom that McMurphy displayed was his constant lack of remorse. (Nevid, Greene, Johnson, Taylor & Macnab, 2015, p. 217) He was arrested and charged several times before being put in the institution, but he never seemed to feel bad about his actions. McMurphy also possessed many signs of irritability and aggressiveness, and several times he broke the glass in the nurse’s office in order to get his way. (Nevid, Greene, Johnson, Taylor & Macnab, 2015, p. 217). Lastly, McMurphy was very charming and was well-liked by the other patients. Oftentimes, in many circumstances a charming personality is linked to antisocial personality disorder. (Nevid, Greene, Johnson, Taylor & Macnab, 2015, p. 217) All the symptoms McMurphy displayed fit the criteria of antisocial personality disorder quite accurately. If they had diagnosed this correctly in the film, they could have treated him more

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