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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Dehumanization Analysis

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To dehumanize someone is to strip an individual of their individuality including their human attributes and qualities. For as long as mental illnesses have been known, people have treated those with illnesses much differently. A particular assertion i tend to agree with is that people who have mental disorders are always dehumanized in some way. This dehumanization is shown in One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest alongside other perspectives such as a live and pop culture point of view. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey reveals the insensitive treatment and dehumanization of the mentally ill. The origin of the book is a story of an individual in a mental hospital. Ken Kesey’s character observes the daily life in a psych ward and reveals …show more content…

A lecture i attended started off with uneasy jokes about how the mentally ill behave. Dr.Goldberg went on to explain his daily duties of working at a mental hospital and the things he experiences while working there. When an audience member asked how the workers deal with situations where the patients don't take their medicine, Dr.Goldberg laughed and stated something along the lines of “well we just hope and pray they don't kill us.” This specific statement along some other questionable jokes, helped me understand how he viewed his patients in the hospital-stereotypical. However, Dr.Goldberg was able to provide some real life examples of how the mentally ill are dehumanized where he works. He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in

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