How and why are the two social groups - staff and patients - represented in a particular way (in narrative and social terms)?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey. The book is a critique of mental health institutions and their incapabilities of dealing with patients - influenced by Kesey’s own experiences as a voluntary medical guinea pig and nurse’s aid, as illustrated in the autobiographical ‘Sketches’ preface. The patients are represented in ways that reflect the defective system; they are labelled and emasculated by the staff, while a clear physical and emotional division is upheld in order to consolidate the hierarchy within the institution. The mental and physical toll this has on the patients demonstrates Kesey’s objections.
Cuckoo’s Nest echoes the criticisms later raised in David Rosenhan’s study, ‘On Being Sane in Insane Places’ (1973). Rosenhan notes that once a patient is labelled, ‘all of his other behaviours and characteristics are colored by that label’. (Rosenhan., D. L) Concerning McMurphy, an aide declares, ‘This man is not only very very sick, but I believe he is a Potential Assaultive... Don’t you recognize the arch type of psychopath?’ (134) The aides immediately associate the nature of his character - confident, loud, imposing - with a diagnosis to justify his confinement, …show more content…
Kesey illustrates the repercussions of labelling and it’s inadequacies. The separations that exist within and outside the hospital allow for fear, dominance, and prejudice, and Kesey exhibits this through the behaviours and interactions of staff and patient. Through subtle threats and a careful dynamic in the environment of the hospital, Kesey shows how the institution is insidious at heart, using emasculation as a platform to bolster the staff’s dominance and personal
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey. The book is a critique of mental health institutions and their incapabilities of dealing with patients - influenced by Kesey’s own experiences as a voluntary medical guinea pig and nurse’s aid, as illustrated in the autobiographical ‘Sketches’ preface. The patients are represented in ways that reflect the defective system; they are labelled and emasculated by the staff, while a clear physical and emotional division is upheld in order to consolidate the hierarchy within the institution. The mental and physical toll this has on the patients demonstrates Kesey’s objections.
Cuckoo’s Nest echoes the criticisms later raised in David Rosenhan’s study, ‘On Being Sane in Insane Places’ (1973). Rosenhan notes that once a patient is labelled, ‘all of his other behaviours and characteristics are colored by that label’. (Rosenhan., D. L) Concerning McMurphy, an aide declares, ‘This man is not only very very sick, but I believe he is a Potential Assaultive... Don’t you recognize the arch type of psychopath?’ (134) The aides immediately associate the nature of his character - confident, loud, imposing - with a diagnosis to justify his confinement, …show more content…
Kesey illustrates the repercussions of labelling and it’s inadequacies. The separations that exist within and outside the hospital allow for fear, dominance, and prejudice, and Kesey exhibits this through the behaviours and interactions of staff and patient. Through subtle threats and a careful dynamic in the environment of the hospital, Kesey shows how the institution is insidious at heart, using emasculation as a platform to bolster the staff’s dominance and personal