One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest review

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Recommended: Misinterpretation of mental illness

“I’m friends with the monster that’s under my bed/Get along with the voices inside of my head.” are lyrics to Billboard’s number two on the The Hot 100 list, Monster, which shows how much of an issue defining sanity vs insanity is (SongLyrics, Billboard). The line between the two is unclear, as pointed out in this song, sung by Eminem and Rihanna presumed to be sane but show signs of a mental disorder with the internal voices. This song is fictitious, but it relates to the real issue if determining sanity and insanity. Insanity is defined as severe mental illness, as shown through Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the nurse in charge of making the patients sane may be insane herself (Merriam-Webster, Insanity). The patients may show the most signs of being normal even with diagnosed disorders. In many situations in the novel the line is blurred as to who is insane and who should really be institutionalized. Nurse Ratched runs the ward and should be the most sane one, but she herself may be the most insane out of all the patients. McMurphy has his clothes stolen during the night and when the Nurse sees him draped in only a towel she is furious. She threats the black boy who did not get McMurphy ward clothes that she can make him "spend the next two weeks on the Geriatrics Ward" but she immediately turns to talk to patients "smiling, sweet as sugar" (Kesey 98, 100). She can be described as having schizophrenia "a chronic condition, requiring lifelong treatment", which can be characterized by disorganized behaviors like her ability be incredibly agitated at a staff member and be sweet to patients right after (Mayo Clinic Staff, Schizophrenia). It can also include lack of emotion as shown by her inability t... ... middle of paper ... ...novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, because everyone a reader presumes to be sane based on position in society turns out in the end of the novel to be the most insane. There is no good way of looking at someone to determine sanity level, it is a long process of looking at behaviors and deciding if those behaviors are serious enough to constitute a mental illness and the possibility of institutionalization. Nurse Ratched should be the most sane since she runs the ward but she shows symptoms of Schizophrenia and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, deeming her insane and unfit to run a mental ward. McMurphy is a patient in the ward, but he should be running it because all the claims that s he staff have made about his sanity can be disproved with his actions. The line of sane and insane is blurry, what criteria can really be used to determine who is insane?

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