What mental illness is shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Each film takes up specific gendered mental illnesses – Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, seven times more likely in women than men, and McMurphy with Anti-Social Personality Disorder, three times more likely in men than women.
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What is Harding's illness in Cuckoo's Nest?

Harding is a homosexual, but the social pressure to be straight cripples him. He is married, but he prefers to commit himself to the hospital rather than face prejudice or the anger of his wife. After McMurphy is lobotomized, Harding checks himself out of the ward.
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What mental illness does Harding have?

This diagnosis of Delusional Disorder, Persecutory type, would allow Harding's real issue to be confronted (his homosexuality), which Harding demonstrates that he wants to do, but feels he cannot speak the truth about. The setting of this film is in the 1960s, which works against Harding's favor.
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Who is schizophrenic in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Chief Bromden is perhaps a paranoid schizophrenic, and as a result he is heavily medicated most of the time. Bromden believes the Combine, a mysterious syndicate, runs everything through the use of machine and human agents like Nurse Ratched and her evil minions, the orderlies.
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What types of therapy are used in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Everyone who works at the hospital in the movie has decided that ECT (electric shock therapy) should be used to punish unruly patients, instead of as actual treatment for schizophrenia (which used to be common) or depression (which is still fairly common).
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The Psychology of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest



What mental illness does Chief Bromden have?

Chief Bromden presented a long-standing history characterized by the complex features of Schizophrenia.
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What is the meaning of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Miloš Forman's 1975 film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a harrowing tale of rebellion vs. conformity, maturity vs. immaturity, and the true nature of how we measure and treat mental illness. It's about the broken penal system, personal pain, trauma, authority, and freedom.
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What disorder does McMurphy have?

Each film takes up specific gendered mental illnesses – Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, seven times more likely in women than men, and McMurphy with Anti-Social Personality Disorder, three times more likely in men than women.
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What is the fog in Cuckoo's Nest?

The Fog Machine

Fog is a phenomenon that clouds our vision of the world. In this novel, fogs symbolize a lack of insight and an escape from reality. When Bromden starts to slip away from reality, because of his medication or out of fear, he hallucinates fog drifting into the ward.
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Why was Bromden in the mental hospital?

Bromden, like his father, is a big man who comes to feel small and helpless. The reason for Bromden's hospitalization is cloaked in ambiguity. He may have had a breakdown from witnessing the decline of his father or from the horrors of fighting in World War II.
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What does Nurse Ratched symbolize?

A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched represents the oppressive mechanization, dehumanization, and emasculation of modern society—in Bromden's words, the Combine. Her nickname is “Big Nurse,” which sounds like Big Brother, the name used in George Orwell's novel 1984 to refer to an oppressive and all-knowing authority.
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What is Martini disease?

Martini. Another hospital patient. Martini lives in a world of delusional hallucinations, but McMurphy includes him in the board and card games with the other patients.
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What was wrong with Billy bibbit?

Billy Stutters

Billy Bibbit's psychological problems manifest themselves as a stutter. Billy reveals in group therapy that he flunked out of college because he had to quit ROTC.
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Is Chief mentally ill Why or why not?

First Person (Chief Bromden)

Chief Bromden is a Columbia Indian who suffers from schizophrenia. Although he plays a central role in the story, he is largely an observer. Chief is an interesting narrator because he is certainly not unbiased, and his mental illness can also shed doubt on his reliability.
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Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a true story?

The novelist Ken Kesey based the character of Nurse Ratched, the villain of his 1962 novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” on a real person—a nurse whom he once met while working the night shift in a psychiatric facility in Oregon.
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Who is the bull goose loony What does that mean?

DEFINITION. Wild and unpredictable. Incoherent. The craziest person in a group of insane folks.
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What do cigarettes symbolize in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

In contrast to keys, cigarettes represent freedom. The men use cigarettes as chips in blackjack, each cigarette representing a dime—their only money to spend as they wish. Cigarettes provide the men with a makeshift currency, giving them power to place bets, take risks, and feel like men instead of children.
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What does McMurphy's laugh symbolize?

The longer McMurphy is on the ward, the more the men begin to laugh. Laughter becomes a symbol and an active representation of the men's freedom, even though they are basically imprisoned by the ward and by society.
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What does McMurphy symbolize?

McMurphy represents sexuality, freedom, and self-determination—characteristics that clash with the oppressed ward, which is controlled by Nurse Ratched. Through Chief Bromden's narration, the novel establishes that McMurphy is not, in fact, crazy, but rather that he is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage.
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What is the name of the mental hospital in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

- So long, Cuckoo's Nest. Oregon State Hospital, the mental institution where the 1975 movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed, is making way for a new complex. Most of the dilapidated, 125-year-old main building will be torn down and replaced starting this fall.
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Did One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest changed psychiatry?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Turns 40: Our Depiction of Psych Wards in Film Hasn't Changed. The pivotal Jack Nicholson film based on Ken Kesey's novel has yet to inspire similar films on deinstitutionalization.
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How Does One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest relate to psychology?

The film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, prompts very important aspect of the human condition. In the movie, the protagonist, Mac McMurphy, is deemed dangerous, so the mental institute tries to suppress him (Kesey). The film highlights various aspects of human conditions like psychology, sociology and philosophy.
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Why did McMurphy get a lobotomy?

McMurphy is given a lobotomy for his attack on Nurse Ratched. When he is returned to the ward after the operation, he is a vegetable. That same night, Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow.
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Is Nurse Ratched evil?

Ratched was named the fifth-greatest villain in film history (and second-greatest villainess, behind the Wicked Witch of the West of The Wizard of Oz) by the American Film Institute in their series 100 Years... 100 Heroes & Villains.
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Why does Chief Bromden pretend to be deaf and mute?

According to the source novel, he pretends to be deaf and dumb because it allows him to hear the secrets of the people around him.
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