One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Social Control Analysis

When there is something wrong with a person, sometimes it is necessary to fix those problems. This is where social control comes into play. Social control is using internal or external means to enforce social norms and by using it, it is possible to create a controlled environment. In order for a controlled environment to exist, the four characteristics of a controlled environment; status hierarchy, depersonalization, adjustment, and lastly institutionalization, must be present. The One that Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest contains many examples of how controlled environments come to be.

Status hierarchy are the different levels of authority that exists within a place. In order to successfully create them, it is necessary that some have power and others obey that power. The One that Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in a mental asylum and has nurses that are on the highest level of the hierarchy, the doctors would be above them and the board of directors at the top. The patients must obey them if they want to lead a happy life in the institute, thus putting them on the lowest level. In the film, the rankings are shown when Nurse Ratched and the other nurses have meetings with the patients. She holds the …show more content…
In the movie, Chief would be the best example. He has been at the institute for such a long time that he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. He only truly regains who he is at the end of the film when he kills McMurphy and breaks out. Another example of depersonalization from the movie has to do with McMurphy. At first he always disobeys the nurses and tries to get what he wants, and toward the end of the movie, he is less gung-ho about not listening. The nurses and doctors used questionable lessons to get him to listen, but in the end they changed him. The lobotomy that was done on him in the end of the film is a more physical manifestation of how much he had