Stigma In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Stigma is associating negative qualities with having a mental illness. Someone who is mentally ill may be wrongly viewed or view themselves as being weak or “damaged,” leading to feelings of shame or embarrassment. It is a huge barrier that may prevent people with mental illness and their family from seeking out help. Stigma is overall a specific diagnostic sign of a disease (Webster dictionary). According to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health And Addiction Services, it is stated that many people with either a diagnosed or undiagnosed mental illness don’t want to seek help because they don’t want to be labeled as “mentally ill” or “crazy.” No one should be mistreated because they were born different. Whether physical, behavioral

They are scorned towards nurse Ratched, who enjoys inflicting physical punishments on the men and who enters into a power struggle with McMurphy. There is a particular black man who appears to be older. He is viewed as the submissive black who can easily be bought with cheap alcohol and a white woman. McMurphy was a corrupted individual in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest as Lisa was in Girl Interrupted. McMurphy however, had a more positive view even though he was a rebel. He was not disabled. He was more like a guy on the inside who was actually seeing how everyone was being treated in a mental institution. He saw how all the staff, nurses and doctors treated everybody as if they were all crazy, or abnormal instead of people who happened to have a mental disorder. I like the way McMurphy’s interaction with the people in the institution. He treats them like decent human beings. He organizes different activities like basketball and card games. He jokes around with them, makes them interested in the World Series, takes them fishing on a stolen boat, and best of all gets them drunk and gives them women. Chief Bromden is a very big Indian who pretends to be deaf and dumb. He played football in high school, and was in the army. His mental illness was never diagnosed. At McMurphy’s arrival Chief Bromden’s behavior lessens a bit. His delusions lessen, and when McMurphy asserts him, he is often affected positively. Billy Bibbits, a young man with a stutter who lives in terrifying fear of his mother, looks like a little kid, but he might be in his early thirties. He is very shy, especially around women. At the party in the ward, Billy loses his virginity to Candy. After Billy loses his virginity to Candy he no longer stammers (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). I see the black men as stereotypes because of racism. They were hired to intimidate all the mentally ill patients in the ward. Most of