One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Sociological Analysis

The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is based on the experience of a criminal by his own free will chooses to move to a mental institution to avoid serving his time at a prison work camp. The criminal, Randall P. McMurphy, was under the assumption that his sentence would be converted to the amount of time he would need to spend in the mental hospital. Unfortunately, what he did not realize was that once he was admitted into the institution, he would not be released until the medical staff thought he would be safe to return to society. McMurphy goes about living in the institution, and creates a bond among several of the patients. This bond creates a large impact on the structure of the mental hospital. McMurphy’s relationships with other patients in the ward develop into their own little society, where thoughts and opinions grow and interfere with the flow of the institution's rules and regulations. As a result, this causes friction between the authorities and the patients which

will ultimately lead to dramatic results.
The movie encaptures many of the deviance and social control theory’s we learned in class. However, the prevailing sociological perspective on mental hospitals is the theory most prevalent in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Mental illness is viewed as residual deviance, and mental hospitals as total institutions in which patients that are not really sick are oppressed by authoritarian mental health professionals. This aspect is played out in the film shortly after R.P. McMurphy arrives at the mental health facility. First, he is taken to speak with Dr. Spivey as an initial interview to inform the patient of the intended plan for his stay. After some idle chit-chat, Dr. Spivey asks Mr. McMurphy if he knows why he is there, to which the patient denies knowing the answer. Dr. Spivey reads Mr. McMurphy’s file from the penitentiary stating that he has been “belligerent…talked when unauthorized…resentful in attitude towards work…lazy.” He further states that Mr. McMurphy’s reasons for being in the penitentiary is for five arrests for assault, statutory rape, and “they think you’ve been faking it [insanity] in order to get out of your work detail.” Despite knowing that McMurphy’s is not truly mental ill the staff still chooses to hold him at the mental hospital. They could have easily transferred him back to prison to serve the rest of his sentence, but they kept him there as a form of punishment. Nurse Ratched believed that she was doing the right thing by taking Mac in and not “transferring the problem to another place,” but in actuality, she was abusing her power. From this point on Mr. McMurphy will truly experience the crude labeling theory of being called mentally ill.
In the film, mental illness is not primarily defined by the different behaviors of the patients as much as by the label that the mental hospital staff attached to the patients. Nurse Rachet, the head nurse that conducts group therapy and distributes medications, could be responsible for the patient’s behavior. Nurse Ratchet constantly talks to the characters about their supposed problems during group therapy sessions. She forces two patients Martini and Billy to regularly discuss their problems during almost every group therapy session that was administered. Therefore, reinforcing the problems that they think they have, ultimately making them believe their mental illness labeling.
It is interesting to note that only two people in mental hospital truly have to be there, the others should be free to leave. Yet, as stated before Mrs. Rachet is using what has been defined as the labeling theory. Nurse Rachet is in a position of power, which makes the labels she gives her patients such as “sick” and “abnormal,” hold true not only to society, but also to the characters themselves. As we learned in class, once an individual is labeled abnormal, all of his or her other behaviors and characteristics will be colored by that label. However, the exact opposite is shown when Nurse Rachet is not around. Mr. McMurphy treats the other patients not as anything different but normal; therefore he receives as what society calls a normal reaction from them.
The fishing trip is another great example of illustrating the aspect of the labeling theory. McMurphy who steals the mental hospital bus takes some of the patients to go fishing. One on the fishing boat he has them portray themselves as doctors, as to not arouse suspicion from the boat watchmen and a couple of his friend. For the most part they are believed, which reinforces the idea that they too can be whatever they wish to be. McMurphy gives his fellow members responsibilities that we as a society deem to challenging for the mental ill to perform. For example, some of the characters were in charge of getting the boat out of the dock, some were in charge of steering, and others were to catch fish. This clearly shows that a psychiatric label truly has a life and influence of its own. Therefore, depending on the treatment they receive like in Mr. McMurphy case, the patients reacted in what is seen to be appropriate behavior. When they are treated with respect and of high opinion they act like normal people, but when they are treated as ill and abnormal, they react in that way.
The interactionist perspective can be used to understand other types of abnormal or deviant behavior as well.

“Also looking at deviance from the interactionist perspective, noted that this movement into deviant subcultures occurs through a process of "drift," as people gradually leave their old crowd and become enmeshed in a circle of deviant associates” (Moloney, Lecture 1). This is exactly what happened when McMurphy entered the mental hospital. At first the other patients were quite indifferent to the behavior of McMurphy's, however as time progresses they begin to join him. The World Series games are prime examples of this perspective. Originally, no one voted to watch the games, but later on as they being to be enjoy time together with McMurphy they change their minds. In addition, when McMurphy stated to react with hostility and rage towards the hospital staff the other patients soon followed in the same manner. This perspective is not the only thing that allied the

characters.
McMurphy and his Symbolic interactionism approach to dealing with the other patients helped drastically. This theory can be used to help the viewer understand the patient's behavior. The symbolic interaction theory suggests that people develop and rely upon the process of social interaction. In the film the characters are seen by the hospital staff as being mentally ill and different, therefore they internalize these judgements and they themselves began to feel as if they are these things. Though what is said by the staff may not be true, the internalization of these thoughts begin to shape the behavior of the patients. As a result, explains why many of the patients who were treated by their friends and family as people who are mentally ill and crazy, freely checked themselves into the hospital and where afraid to leave.