One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Introduction
One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest was a novel written and produced by Ken Kesey, in the year 1962 and published in the United States of America. The novel narrates a setting in a fictional Oregon Psychiatric Hospital, and is meant to serve as a critique of the human behaviour and mind in institutional processes as well as the celebration of human principles. The novel has five main characters who are active through the entire reading. It begins with a narrative from a character Chief Bromden, the son of a white mother and a Native American father, who relates his imagined and real humiliations he suffered at the hospital assistants’ care (Kesey, 1963).
While he is physically larger than they are and his treatment is tolerated, he has a serious fear of the big nurse, Nurse Ratched. The nurse is described as a woman of absolute control and power, who is ruthless and bitter. Her power is endowed by her naturally large breasts and has a machine like efficiency. Despite his fear of the nurse, the schizophrenic Chief still believes the nurse to be a large mechanized matrix that services behind the walls and controls everything from human behaviour to the environment behaviour. In the early stages of the book, a new patient, Randle Patrick McMurphy is introduced at the hospital (Kesey, 1963).
McMurphy is a rebellious and disrespectful character who distinguishes himself from the rest of the patients and shows no regard whatsoever for all authority of the hospital. Mc Murphy’s rebellious attitude does not permit him to be as obedient to Nurse Ratched as the rest of the patients and so he tries to convince others to go against her. At first they defend Nurse Ratched, but they eventually give in to McMurphy’s influence. McMurphy gets support from the other patients and together they insist on watching a blank screen. As a result, other patients begin being rebellious as well forcing Nurse Ratched to be more ruthless (Kesey, 1963).
A power struggle is seen between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. Later on in the novel, he attempts to take several other patients fishing and becomes successful. Nurse Ratched decides to post newspaper clippings about boating accidents and adverse weather so as to scare the other patients from taking the trip. The men gather their courage and decide to go despite Nurse Ratched’s efforts. Doctor Spivey, who is a morphine addict and Candy Starr, a prostitute accompany them to the trip. The trip causes them to find new individuality which they remain determined to explore. The trip galvanizes the entire group and are all motivated to find a new path in life (Kesey, 1963).
However, McMurphy attempts to sexually abuse the nurse which causes her to leave the hospital. With the chief’s help, they also cause a fight among the other patients and are sent to the Disturbed Ward and are given electroshock therapy. When McMurphy is returned to the hospital, the other patients doubt whether the lobotomized body is his. For this reason, Chief decides to suffocate him and escapes. When Nurse Ratched returns to the hospital, she remains passive for a long time despite McMurphy being absent. The novel ends with chiefs’ freedom, which is what McMurphy always wanted during his stay at the hospital. . Chief’s successful escape is an indication of McMurphy’s final victory over Nurse Ratched (Kesey, 1963).
1.) Mental hospital and what it did or did not do to promote interdependence and provide assistance for issues of dependency.
Human beings behave in a similar characteristic way and respond to situations differently. Different people would use different approaches to solve problems. These approaches used usually depend on cultural differences in individuals and the environment essentially shared by many people. Several people differ from each other in their tendency to accumulate cultural patterns. To understand human culture and behaviour, organizations and institutions have developed systems that best define the psychology of individuals (Payne, 2009).
Mental and social institutions are meant to help explore human behaviour from different perspectives. In the perspective of the need for assistance that arise from cognitive or physical incapacities, patients require close monitoring so as to understand their behaviours and which new behaviours to be adopted. It is often perceived that those who depend on care have their own needs, interests and perspectives that are different from other people who provide care. Mental institutions also help create a sense of dependency for the patient. When the patient’s behaviour is understood, it is easier for them to be moulded and cared for such that their needs are met in every aspect (Payne, 2009).
The environment created in the mental and social institution gives the patients the knowledge and understanding of other cultural behaviours that are considered healthy. For example, how to handle problems at different levels and analys the several options in solving the problems. The psychological mechanism also causes them to be able to learn and adopt to new behavioral characteristics through the behaviours of those around them. They also get to generate cultural change that influences their behaviours either posistively or negatively over time. For this reason, institutions are considered to play a key role in shaping a person’s cognitive and behavioral patterns (Payne, 2009).
Psychological mechanisms such as egalitarianism and individualism give patients new experiences in their personal values and priorities. Once these values are developed, individuals are able to create a public behavioral patterns, meaning they can know how to behave when around other people in a pleasant manner that others may want to emulate. Personal values function cognitively like a self-concept, which give the person a chance to shape their choices. This shows that behavior patterns are emanating from each person’s internalized values rather than arise from their interactions with other people. When an individual can develop behaviours on their own, he or she has the potential to create dependency around other people (Payne, 2009).
Dependency is strongly emotional but a widely used concept especially in the care of the elderly. While care is heart-warming, the connotations are entirely negative. Those who are identified among patients as dependent are assumed to be actively involved in caring for themselves. A patient who is unable to depend on others for care is bound to get worse and not recover. Care and dependence draw people together in that during the recovery process the patient learns to do the things done for them on their own. They develop social, moral, political, and psychological dependency. For this reason, recovery is fast, and dependence is developed to help the patient care for others as well by giving guidance and assistance (Payne, 2009).
2.) Mental hospital environment in reference to the rules and procedures and its impact on the clientele
Dependency is an attribute of social relations and is well established in a patient with proper care. This can be made possible when there are rules and regulations guarding mental institutions. These rules are meant to impact discipline and order in patients especially inmates. While rules are exercised to help patients develop responsibility, there are procedures that have to be followed to make these rules practical and effective. Procedures include specified steps in treatment, medication and therapies to be given to patients by professionals. Rules and procedures are also meant to improve the welfare of the institutions in that they can create dependency among those giving care to patients (Goffman, 1961).
Procedures and rules in institutions and organizations emphasize on roles of the clientele in carrying behavioral patterns. Whereas dependency defines an individual’s beliefs about social norms and other people. Procedures are crucial in guiding those giving care on what is expected of them by the patients and the patients knowing what is expected of them by the caregivers and their fellow patients. They rules on the other hand, help the patients know what ought to be and what elicits approval in the institution. Once they know how to follow the rules and provided procedures, they can be able to identify negative behaviours affecting their environment, what problems arise and how to solve them, resource decisions and how to negotiate them, recognize authority and how to obey them, and conflict resolution (Goffman, 1961).
In addition to these, procedures enable the caregivers to monitor the patient’s progress in treatment and avoid inadequate reports by the caregivers. This way, patients are able to develop all kind of dependencies including mental, social, and psychological. With the right medical procedures, the patients can also be able to develop the ability to perform daily basic activities on their own. Unlike holding personal values, procedures and rules activate environmental situations that make the patients flexible in terms of adjusting to new environments and still maintaing their new behavioral patterns. It also gives them the ability to break from the norm and explore the different options in gaining experiences in new areas (Goffman, 1961).
3.) Mental hospital structure in reference to authority, decision-making, and formal power and how it impacted the clientele.
Apart from the rules and procedures to be followed, the mental institution is not considered complete and successful without authority. There have to be leaders who make weighty decisions and exercise formal power towards the effectiveness of the institution. These leaders help create and impact the rules which govern the institution. Through the leadership, patients learn virtues such as obedience and following procedures. This way they are able to exercise responsibility and relate well with others outside the institution. It also impacts leadership skills on the patients such that they are able to exercise formal power when and where necessary. In addition to this, they can also make goals and objectives for themselves and work towards meeting them (Paulson, 2012).
Authority, decision making and formal power exercised updates the patients on the observations they make in the institution which causes them to experience new situations and new people who are not their caregivers. With the authority and proper decisions made, different behavioral patterns that vary in patients may be identified to help others who easily learn from those around them. Cultural affiliations create characteristic patterns in most patients who are adherent to authority and formal leadership. For this reason, authority can make decisions regarding individual behaviour and ensure that this behaviour is accounted for in terms of value (Paulson, 2012).
4.) Concept of deinstitutionalization in reference to those that suffer from mental illness
Deinstitutionalization as a routine helps accomplish the emphasis on how people suffering from mental illness can find a reasonable world that helps them organize their lives. It entails constant exercise of new skills in the institutions and achieving goals. According to Goffman, social and psychological order can be created through situated normal practices. As they are produced across settings and over time, results emerge through their negotiations and interactions with those offering guidance. Consequently, deinstitutionalization is confounded to the success of dependency which is individual attribute towards the construction of the situation (Goffman, 1961).
Deinstitutionalization creates a full understanding of the behavioral influences among patients and those around them. Behavioral influence may cause behaviour evolution in a person such that they learn to practice acceptable behaviours on their own without relying on the caregivers for guidance. This way, it is easier to maintain new skills and behaviour patterns when interacting with other people and during public appearances. However, the collusion of many patients to maintain their behavioral patterns is not inviolate, they may sometimes change drastically due to the change of environment. These changes can be accounted for in terms of deinstitutionalization processes where the patients get to yield new skills and develop new bdehavioral patterns with the help of those around them (Goffman, 1961).
In conclusion, the book defines human behaviour and mental stability in institutions. The characters explore different mental challenges and behavioral patterns in humans. According to the author, human behaviour is influenced by their thoughts and the behaviours of those around them. Through the constant actions of others, people can develop habits and interests that can either be positive or negative. He implies that, applying procedures and rules positively creates social and psychological dependence in a person’s behavioral patterns.
References
Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. New York, NY: Anchor Publications
Kesey, K. (1963). One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. New York, NY: Signet Publishers.
Paulson, G. (2012). Closing the asylums: Causes and consequences of the deinstitutionalization movement. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing
Payne, C. (2009). Asylum: Inside the closed world of state mental hospitals. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press Publishing
