One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Essay

Craig Schneider

Professor Deskovitz

PSY 100

27 September 2017

Psychology and Crazies

Throughout the film adaptation of the book One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), many psychological themes and concepts are present. One of which being the stigma that all mentally ill people walk around in a zombie like state in a hospital with white floors and ceilings and grey furniture with the place having no life at all. To the contrary, one of the first scenes that is shown in the film is a group of patients sitting at a brown table, albeit in a white and gray room playing a game of blackjack. One of them is getting very angry for being what he thinks is cheated out of a win, while another is just asking a million questions, while the guy next him is laughing hysterically at the situation they are in. The scene really hits home when the camera pans out and the viewer is shown that the card playing patients are seated right next to a group of lobotomized patients walking around talking at nothing, ironically looking and acting like zombies. This scene does a great job of portraying that you will see common tropes in this movie  that come with being in a mental institution but as well as things that dispute them.

Furthermore, the stigma is disputed again when, the protagonist Randle McMurphy upon watching an argument between two patients over a game of monopoly escalate into almost a brawl, then takes the hose from the hydrotherapy cart in the bathroom and proceeds to dowse all the participants in the game and the argument with it. Laughing hysterically the whole time, followed by laughter from the other patients after seeing the whole ordeal.

Interesting things don’t stop there, a few nights later McMurphy bribes the night guard and smuggles in two women and a lot of alcohol. During the night a patient with a stutter named Bobby has a crush on one of the women McMurphy brought. He is too shy to talk to her, but after enough drinking, regions of bobbys’ frontal lobe become depressed, impairing judgment and self control, and giving him a sense of mild euphoria that usually comes with that kind of consumption. Combine that with looking at the attractive girl he’s been eyeing, causing more dopamine to be released and Bobby has gained the confidence to go talk to her. During this conversation Bobby hardly stutters at all, which is not shocking since the part of the brain responsible for expressive speech is broca’s area; a region on the frontal lobe. At this time the night guard is sitting down on a couch, and as he gets up his blood vessels cannot constrict due to having too many drinks so his blood pressure drops twice as much as a sober person, Causing him to pass out as he meets gravity. McMurphy sees this and takes his keys, then unlocks the window to escape and says that he is bringing the girls with him.