One_Flew_over_the_Cuckoos_Nest_Essay

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Essay Being institutionalized can be harmful to somebody who isn’t really mentally unstable in the first place. RP McMurphy was a criminal who was just trying to skip out on jail by acting like he was crazy just to stay in a mental hospital thinking he was going to be able to do his sentence in a mental hospital instead of prison. He was initially a normal human being in the mental hospital and he became institutionalized. Being institutionalized is when you become attached to the people you are with and feel like you belong there and nowhere else in the world. During the movie RP was becoming institutionalized, he could have escaped many times and he chose not to and to stay with all of the people in the hospital because he grew to like them. He felt really bad for the patients so he decided to steal one of the busses and brought all of them out fishing meanwhile he could have escaped and said screw them and left them there. These are all examples of RP becoming institutionalized. Towards the end of the movie RP let girls in the hospital and got alcohol and pretty much threw a party with the patients in the hospital while it as night time. At the end he wanted to escape and he just couldn’t do it, he found out that out in the real world he isn’t accepted and just a criminal but in the hospital he is a hero and a much respected leader between the patients. At the very end of the movie Nurse Rached finds Billy Bippet with a random woman he recently slept with the night before. She became very angry and was about to give Billy shock therapy when billy killed himself. RP showed great feelings for Billy when he tried to kill Nurse Rached for all the horrible things she has done to the patients. Because RP was so violent and angry they gave him a lobotomy and RP was never the same again. The once leader and normal RP McMurphy was a vegetable and after that everything went back to normal in the hospital. None of the patients showed emotion of RP death. That’s another sign of the patients being institutionalized because went back to their normal routine and nothing bothered them. The movie critiques institutionalization in many ways. A good 80% of the patients RP was socializing with were able to check out whenever they wanted and they just can’t leave because they feel that they don’t fit in anywhere else so they resorted to the mental hospital and checked themselves in so they can finally feel welcome somewhere. Dale Harding was able to check out whenever he would like but he felt like he belonged there because they actually accepted him for who he was and he said he was having problems with his wife and that’s why he checked into the hospital. Chief was the most institutionalized next to RP McMurphy, Chief was a 7 foot Native American who didn’t fit in anywhere and posed as if he was deaf and dumb because he thought that if he put on that act he would be able to somehow fit in at the hospital. Once RP influenced Chief that the Hospital was a horrible place and was treating the patients horribly he finally came out to RP and actually talked to him and broke his silence that he was acting out. At the end Chief realized that It was time, After RP passes away Chief decided it was time to leave the place that he thought he fit in and he escaped and ran off to Canada like RP wanted to do. Also to become institutionalized is to be totally locked away from regular society and possibly a threat to others. They have become used to adhering to a strictly regimented routine. They lose the ability and desire to do things for themselves when all their washing, cooking, cleaning and thinking for that matter is done for them by the institution. It's like releasing a pet bird into the wild and expecting it to fend for itself. It just wouldn't stand a chance. Individuals in institutions may be deprived of independence and of responsibility; to the point that once they return to outside life they are often unable to manage many of its demands. It has also been argued that institutionalized individuals become psychologically more prone to mental health problems. Deinstitutionalization did not always result in better treatment, in many ways it helped reveal some of the shortcomings of institutional care, as discharged patients were often unable to take care of themselves, and many ended up homeless or in jail. Many patients had become institutionalized and were unable to adjust to independent living. Individuals who suffer from institutional syndrome can face several kinds of difficulties upon returning to a community. The lack of independence and responsibility for patients within institutions, along with the depressing and dehumanizing environment, can make it difficult for patients to live and work independently. The experience of being in an institution may often have worsened individual' illness. Being institutionalized was very harmful for people who returned to the outside world, they tried to fix it but it was very difficult. The One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest critiqued institutionalization very well and in many ways. One thing they left out was life after when people would leave the institution. Life became almost impossible for people because they were so used to people doing everything for them that they were unable to do it themselves that they would go back and check themselves back into the institution.