Introduction Mental illness is a crippling disposition that affects 42.5 million adults in the United States every year. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), this is approximately 18.5 percent of the adult population. These conditions can range from slight antisocial disorder to severe schizophrenia. Because these debilitating conditions affect cognitive thinking, people who suffer from mental illnesses exhibit seemingly abnormal behaviors that are different from societal norms. As a result, close relatives or authorities often send people suffering from mental conditions to mental hospitals, asylums, or psychiatric wards to heal. However, in the past, some of these patients suffered abuse under the hands of the authorities
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This is seen in many popular horror movies such as Mirrors, where schizophrenia is the reason why there is a possessed demon killing its victims through mirrors, personality disorder in Silence of the Lambs, and antisocial personality disorder in Saw. However, there are also non-horror films, which incorporate mental illness into their stories to explore different aspects of this distressing illness. Two movies in which shed a different light on mental illness are Shutter Island, a psychological thriller, and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a comedy-drama film. Even though, both films take place around the same time period – Shutter Island takes place in 1954, while One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in 1963 – they were produced in immensely different eras. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed in 1975, while Shutter Island was filmed in 2010. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses a comedic stance to portray the adverse effects of authoritarian control in mental institutions. During the 1970’s, the authorities had the most power over mentally ill patients. While, Shutter Island plays on the older conventions of horror inspired motifs to criticize the negative outcomes of authoritarian control during that time and focuses more on the bio-psycho-social approach of the 21st century, thus broadening the scope of …show more content…
The National Alliance for Mental Illness defines mental illness as a condition, which affects a person’s mood, thinking, and feelings, which can directly hinder a person’s ability to function and interact with other people. Additionally, there can be several different factors, which can cause a mental illness, such as genetics, environmental factors, or trauma. According to the American Psychiatric Association, doctors and health care professionals evaluate those who have potential mental illnesses. Furthermore, even if doctors diagnose two patients with the same condition, they will not have the same exact symptoms or exhibit the same behaviors. As seen, mental illnesses are very real conditions that people should not overlook. However, the way that health care professionals judge if a person is mentally ill is fragile and feeble because it is just based on observations and evaluations. There is no test or physical examination to confirm the condition, thereby allowing faulty evaluations of people who may not necessarily have mental illnesses. Consequently, this frail method of mental health evaluation is seen in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s
This is seen in many popular horror movies such as Mirrors, where schizophrenia is the reason why there is a possessed demon killing its victims through mirrors, personality disorder in Silence of the Lambs, and antisocial personality disorder in Saw. However, there are also non-horror films, which incorporate mental illness into their stories to explore different aspects of this distressing illness. Two movies in which shed a different light on mental illness are Shutter Island, a psychological thriller, and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a comedy-drama film. Even though, both films take place around the same time period – Shutter Island takes place in 1954, while One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in 1963 – they were produced in immensely different eras. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed in 1975, while Shutter Island was filmed in 2010. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses a comedic stance to portray the adverse effects of authoritarian control in mental institutions. During the 1970’s, the authorities had the most power over mentally ill patients. While, Shutter Island plays on the older conventions of horror inspired motifs to criticize the negative outcomes of authoritarian control during that time and focuses more on the bio-psycho-social approach of the 21st century, thus broadening the scope of …show more content…
The National Alliance for Mental Illness defines mental illness as a condition, which affects a person’s mood, thinking, and feelings, which can directly hinder a person’s ability to function and interact with other people. Additionally, there can be several different factors, which can cause a mental illness, such as genetics, environmental factors, or trauma. According to the American Psychiatric Association, doctors and health care professionals evaluate those who have potential mental illnesses. Furthermore, even if doctors diagnose two patients with the same condition, they will not have the same exact symptoms or exhibit the same behaviors. As seen, mental illnesses are very real conditions that people should not overlook. However, the way that health care professionals judge if a person is mentally ill is fragile and feeble because it is just based on observations and evaluations. There is no test or physical examination to confirm the condition, thereby allowing faulty evaluations of people who may not necessarily have mental illnesses. Consequently, this frail method of mental health evaluation is seen in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s