One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: An Analysis

From drilling holes into the skull to release the ‘evil spirits’ to psychotherapy and medications that treat specific illnesses, treatment for mental illnesses have come a long way. However, there is still much improvement that can be done to better serve those with a mental illness. There is a drastic difference between mental health practices in the 1950s and the present day, however there is still room for improvement in the future. For centuries the mentally ill were treated so poorly. The abuse was non-stop and the living conditions were unbelievable. Many people believed “mental illness was attributed to some supernatural force” (Foerschner 8) and was to be treated by “purging, bloodletting, blistering, dousing patients in either boiling or ice-cold water to “shock” them, sedatives, and using physical restraints such as straitjackets (Foerschner 10). A majority of these treatments led to dangerous side effects and often death.
A particular hospital that stood out the most was the Oregon State Hospital which was the setting in the 1975 film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” which was based off the 1962 novel written by Ken Kesey. The book “helped bring attention to some hospitals with unethical practices” (Goodfriend 12). The …show more content…
Dix was a very important woman who changed mental health care for the better. She “advocated the hospital movement” which was aimed to protect and cure the mentally ill and improve their quality of life and within “40 years” she “got the U.S. government to fund the building of 32 state psychiatric hospitals as well as organizing reforms in asylums across the world” (Module 2: A Brief History of Mental Illness and the U.S. Mental Health Care System