Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

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Throughout the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, author Ken Kesey incorporates what were commonly viewed as mental illnesses of the 1960s and shows means by which they were treated. Narrator Chief Bromden was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a chronic brain disorder. Chronic meaning severe and continuous, with minimal anticipation of it getting better or going away. Keeping him hospitalized, the nurses continue to put Bromden through different treatments. Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis that is marked by a strong tendency to dissociate oneself from reality. People suffering from schizophrenia may experience “delusions, hallucinations, and trouble with thinking and concentration “(Parekh). Treatment for schizophrenics remains lifelong, even when symptoms decrease. Psychological therapy and medicines may help manage this illness. Antipsychotic medications are the most commonly prescribed drugs, “thought to control symptoms by affecting the brain neurotransmitter dopamine” (Pruthi). Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications help for some patients as well. …show more content…

ETC, also known as electroshock therapy, is a brief electrocution to produce a seizure. In the novel, Bromden went through many electroshock therapies. After a shock treatment, he feels he is “living in that foggy, jumbled blur…that gray zone between light and dark, or between sleeping and waking or living and dying” (Kesey 160). Similarly, psychosurgery is brain surgery, such as lobotomy, which is done by cutting into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, damaging it. Lastly, insulin shock therapy is repeatedly injecting patients with large doses of insulin, resulting in daily comas for prolonged weeks. Medications, however, are the foundation of schizophrenia treatment today, for the reason that the older methods are not normally carried out any

Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey
522 Words | 3 Pages
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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay
2031 Words | 9 Pages
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1468 Words | 6 Pages
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734 Words | 3 Pages
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1085 Words | 5 Pages
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1329 Words | 6 Pages
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1144 Words | 5 Pages
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Shortly after Randle McMurphy “whipped” Nurse Ratched in group therapy in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the narrator, Chief Bromden, acquiesced the truth that it was only a temporary victory, with the heavy, recurring fog returning quickly, now feeling “as hopeless and dead as [Chief] felt happy a minute ago”, noting “the more I think about how nothing can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in. And I’m glad when it gets thick enough you’re lost in it ad can let go, and be safe again” (Kesey 113). In Kesey’s novel, the fog serves a multitude of purposes, chiefly Bromden’s psychological state and the suppression his individuality and willpower by the hospital throughout the novel.
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989 Words | 4 Pages
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Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey