One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Mental Illness

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Analysis of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Identifying Information One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a captivating film about a group of men in an Oregon psychiatric hospital desperately trying to get better, well most of them at least. A variety of different mental illnesses were easily perceived from many of the patients that resided in this hospital, the majority of these illnesses seemed to be either clinical depression or a personality disorder, although two main characters presented a challenge. R.P. McMurphy, a white male that is 38 with no family spoken of, seems to be a charming, nice guy with no reason to be at the mental institution, other than the fact that he is facing a possibility of going to a work farm for statutory rape. …show more content…

Socially, Nurse Ratched was unpredictable with how she would react to different circumstances. She exerted behaviors of manipulation, especially towards Billy when she threatened to tell his mother that he had sex with a prostitute. The probable cause is that her parents, or whoever raised her, exhibited these traits and she was a product of her environment. Psychologically, Ratched loved control, which probably came from her lack of control as a child, because her parents loved to control her. Her work was diminished by the fact that she felt compelled to have control at all times and that she had little empathy for her own patients, which is a key part in helping psychiatric …show more content…

R.P. McMurphy possibly grew up in an environment that was a cause of him having Anisocial Personality Disorder, but that’s only part of it. Also, McMurphy was possibly sexually abused as a child and that is why he had a rape charge against him. In addition, he acts irritable and hostile in certain situations which leads the viewer to believe that he experienced aggressive trauma as a child or adolescent. These are some of the social aspects of McMurphy’s disorder. Psychologically, McMurphy shows a lack of anxiety when he impulsively steals the bus and when he throws the party in the mental institution. He doesn’t seem to realize the consequences of his actions; also, he does not care. McMurphy can’t seem to stay out of trouble, because he never learns from his mistake. All of these psychological difficulties are classic of Antisocial Personality

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