One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Antisocial Personality Disorder

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Recommended: Discuss how ken kesey uses theme and symbolism in his novel, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 film based on the book of the same name written by Ken Kesey. It stars Jack Nicholson as the protagonist, Randal McMurphy. In the movie, McMurphy is portrayed as the Hero who, while obviously not a perfect role model, the audience is supposed to root for and side with. Throughout the movie, one of the main points is whether our 'hero' is actually mentally ill or is putting on an act in order to escape his prison work sentence. While I feel that the director and the author actually intended the character to be faking, I believe that there is a good case to be made for McMurphy to have undiagnosed Antisocial Personality Disorder. Antisocial Personality disorder is a mental disorder that is characterized by a pattern of irresponsible, exploitive, and guiltless behavior with tendencies to fail to conform to the law and exploit and manipulate others for personal gain. It is diagnosable if the who patient shows these signs is at least 18 years old, there is a conduct disorder before they were 15 years old, and their behavior is not simply the result of Schizophrenia or a manic episode. This diagnosis is usually based on a …show more content…

After the suicide of Billy, McMurphy has an agressive outburst and nearly kills Nurse Ratched. As a result, his ultimate 'treatment' was to be lobotomized and then mercy killed by the one resident who actually took his lessons to heart. While he was there the other patients flocked to him and were taken in by his charm, but once he is gone they seem to go right back to where they were at the beginning of the movie. In real life, there is no prescribed medicine specifically for Antisocial Personality Disorder. The doctor may prescribe drugs to treat the symptoms, but cannot actually treat the cause. The only known way to treat this disorder is through psychotherapy, and even then it is not always effective if the sympotoms are too

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