movie one flew over the cuckoo s nest

Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Thomas Evans
12-6-96
General Psychology
Dr. Sabin
In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, there was
a character
named McMurphy, played by Jack Nickolson, who was admitted into a
mental
institution for medical testing after having been convicted of
statutory rape.
It was obvious that he was only faking and he thought that he
could get off from
having to serve his sentence in a work camp. He pretty much saw
everything and
everyone as a joke but the only person who he didn't fool was
nurse Ratchet. He
thought that he would be able to leave in a couple of months, the
time of his
sentence in the work camp, until he found out that he wouldn't be
allowed to
leave.
After a few days he began to see the patients as a group
that needed
more enjoyment in their lives and he wanted to try to find some
way that they
could get out and go to a bar and watch the world series. The
nursing staff
seemed uncaring to their lack of enjoyment to life and basically
refused to
allow the patients to even watch the game on the TV during their

chores even
after having took a vote where a mute patient nicknamed 'Chief'
for the first
time communicated that he wanted to watch the game. McMurphy had
befriended
Chief and later discovered that he was not deaf and dumb but was
only faking his
muteness and they planed to escape together.
McMurphy later found out that many of these patients were
here only
because they put themselves here and didn't want to leave even
though they had
the option to. He tried his best to bring some life to these
patients such as
teaching them to play poker and gambling for cigarettes. He even
went so far as
to escape over a fence only to open the gate and to get the
patients onto a
nearby bus and drive them to the docks where he took them on a
fishing trip.
Also he arranged for his girlfriend and a prostitute to come to
the institution
at night with some alcohol and had a little party for them before
he decided he
was going to escape. The next morning one of the patients who
was suicidal was
found by the nurses in bed with the prostitute. Nurse Ratchet
told him that he
would tell his mother what he had done and the patient was found
later dead on

the floor from having had slashed his own throat.
McMurphy never did leave and he was given a form of
therapy called ECT,
electro-convulsive therapy, and after many sessions this left him
in a near-
comatose state. One night, Chief had killed McMurphy out of pity
for him as he
thought it was undignified that they had taken nearly all of his
humanity and
the movie ended with Chief escaping after it had been said that
it couldn't be
done.
Electro-convulsive therapy is a technique used to treat
disorders such
as major depression and schizophrenia. Patients usually receive
one treatment
about three time a week for usually ten sessions. Electrodes are
attached to
the temples and a strong electrical shock is given, enough that
convulsions are
produced. This application of current induces unconsciousness so
it becomes
nearly impossible for the patients to recall the treatment. The
patients are
given a sedative beforehand and are also given muscle-relaxants
because the
shock produces such strong convulsions that the patients would
otherwise flail
about wildly sometimes breaking bones. With these
muscle-relaxants the

convulsions are barely noticeable to any onlookers. Also this
form of therapy
is not given to patients that have heart-problems or high blood
pressure.
ECT has been under much controversy for many reasons.
Many
professionals dislike the idea of passing electric current
through the head that
produces convulsions, even if they are given sedatives before
hand. There is
also the side effects. There is disruption in the recall of
recent events and
some patients suffer this lapse of memory on a permanent basis.
No one seems to
know how ECT works and for reasons stated above, it was outlawed
in California
but later overturned by the courts.