[Movie] One flew over the cuckoos nest

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.

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