One flew over the cuckoos nest
 

Quick question for you guys.

I was watching One flew over the cuckoos nest last night (excellent movie if you haven't seen it) and was wondering if the way jack acted around the crazy men would actually do them good. It was, I think, the main point of the movie to show how terrible those hospitals are for the crazy, being treated poorly, and thus worsening or even letting their condition go unimproved.

Jack comes in and starts playing with them, treating them like people, and makes them use their mind in ways more than a forced and downright boring group therapy.

He got Cheif talking, all of them playing basketball, watching the world series, and even got one of the worst patients LAID!!!

This is where my question comes in. The one who was laid, faced his fears of women *which I think was the spark of his psychosis*, and afterwards wasn't stuttering or shaking, and actually speaking and forming fluid sentences. It was as if he faced his fears, got over them a bit, and basically overcame his thought disorder, a common sign of psychosis or schizophrenia. Unfortunately he shortly after committed suicide, but only after the nurse made him feel guilty about what he did, what a dumbass!!


I don't know jack about psychiatric hospitals, but are they really like that? Would Nicholson's approach really help the crazy? Or would it just put them in a dangerous situation like it did billy *suicide victim* and make them more emotionally unstable.

I mean, the workers treat them like objects *although, it would take a very strong willed person to work there full time and not get frustrated*

Either way, is living the way billy was even worth it? If Billy got a chance at becoming better, or even functional again with the risk of an emotional crisis leading to suicide, is it not worth the risk involved? than living life a paranoid, delusional, vegetable?

You should read the book by Ken Kesey.

The idea is based on an allegory for society, if I remember right.

I've been in the psych wards of both private and government institutions to visit my mother.

Private hospitals are generally better than what you see in the movie. (A good example, if you're looking for film references, would be Girl, Interrupted. The hospital depicted in that film is a real, private facility in Massachusetts)

State hospitals? WORSE. You haven't seen horrific living conditions until you step foot in State Psych Ward. They're fucked up, fucked up, fucked up. They treat the patients like absolute shit. The treatment is sub-par. The doctors are few and far between. The nurses are underpaid and disgruntled. It's NOT a nice place to visit. The patients who are usually in the state psych wards are there because they have no money for any real treatment. State wards are awful, awful places.

Regardless of all that, the approach Jack takes with the patients would likely not work in all the cases. I think there's a certain balance required in dealing with the mentally ill. Just "winging it" and breaking all of society's rules is NOT going to address the mentally ill patient. Rules are a part of life, and it's life that the mentally ill are trying to conquer. Jack has a very... FREE perspective of life. I don't think either Ratchet or Jack have it right.

Besides, you can't use use this movie as a kind of "mentally ill treatment" template. It's a societal commentary, not a medical suggestion.

Each individual case of mental illness requires individually tailored care routines. In the case of McMurphy, maybe it would help some people and harm others. I've seen NHS psych units and care plans differ greatly. Basically I agree with Sass ^_^;

You mentioned the part where Billy slept with a woman and overcame his fear. There are basically two different ways that mental health specialists can approach this, and (as I mentioned above) it's not a case of right or wrong, only finding the right method for that particular individual. When someone has a phobia of any kind, you can either gradually introduce them to what they are afraid of or flood them with it (that is, according to modern psychiatry). It differs from person to person.