Notes on Mental Illness:
- Mental illness can define a person and make them a “case to be healed” rather than an individual.
- Are the people on the ward actually insane, or do they just not fit into a rigid society? Harding is simply gay/Billy Bibbit is just an anxious stutterer.
- The men don’t follow the rules, so the hospital is trying to fix them (through punishment and control by regulating cigarettes and tub room privileges)
- Society doesn’t accept their behaviour, but they aren’t mentally ill. Being gay isn’t a mental illness.
- Society calls them mentally ill and puts them in hospital—this is what makes them sick.
- Society can interpret certain behaviours as sick, but sometimes people are just experiencing normal human emotions, like when Mc Murphy is frustrated and acts out, but the Nurse interprets this as mentally ill behaviour.
- On occasion, society’s misunderstanding of mental illness can lead to prejudices which are unfair to outliers (those who do not fit into society’s rigid system).
- Mc Murphy was the catalyst for change. He helped the ones who could not be helped.
- The hospital is a symbol of society—it traps people and doesn’t let them go; the doctors and nurses impose society’s rules
- Other symbols: the cigarettes; the glass panel; the fishing trip; rabbits (weak, frightened people) and wolves (strong individuals who fit into society and control others)
- At the end of the novel, Harding says “we are no longer sick rabbits, but sick men”—society had made them small, weak, and fearful but after McMurphy helped them, they became men
- After McMurphy, the nurse is seen as a human; many sign themselves out of the hospital; the patients have been changed; they even were able to change ward policy when the nurse was recovering from McM’s attack
- McMurphy initiates the process for the patients to see themselves as men; society has made them small, but McM helps them become big
- McM is just a human, he didn’t ask for followers; they took a lot from him and in the end he dies for them.
- Nurse builds up a lot of tension on the ward by separating the patients from society (locking them up) and separating them from each other (her log book; no laughter; no World Series, etc.)
- People with a mental illness can still be a part of society. They just need someone to increase their confidence
- This book changed people’s minds about the treatment of mental illness; it’s important to know how these people are treated
- This is connected to the Combine—Chief sees in metaphors—he sees that the Combine crushes the weak.
- Chief believes he is a small person until the end when he is big enough to leave.
- There is a quote (no page # given) where Chief says his hand “blows up as bit as McM’s”; McM is his idol
- McM has an anti-social disorder
- McM should not be in an institution because he connects with everyone—he wants to be a leader; he wants power
- McM is a sane person in a crazy system and it kills him in the end
- How is the hospital a comment on society?
- Chief talks about the machinery in the walls
- Has our view of mental illness changed today?
- When the book was written, people didn’t care so much about mentally ill people, but we’re more accepting now
- Treatments ruined people’s lives (like Dilantin—the treatment was just as bad as the problem)pp. 177-179
- Is calling someone mentally ill a way to control them?
- What does war have to do with mental illness?
- The Doctor is not fit to judge people’s actions after the fact (like McMurphy’s)
- The fog appears so often…the mental state of the patients is shown by the appearance/disappearance of the fog
- The Nurse is untherapeutic; she judges the patients and keeps them ill
- The medicines are a way to control the patients; the lobotomy has a terrible effect on McM
- Society gives people lobotomies because they would rather make “vegetables” (word used in the book) than help individuals
- Chief is the sickest; he’s been in the hospital (a negative environment) the longest
- The treatments are situationally ironic in that they suppressed people’s thoughts and personalities
- Society gaslights certain people to make them think they are mentally ill (voluntary committals)
- The nurse uses the hospital community to make patients “sicker” through her log book and awful “group therapy” “pecking parties” (page not given—used in the chapter with the first group therapy session)
- EST is still in use today, but it is much better
- Chief experiences hallucinations, but it’s really that his power has been stripped; he’s scared so he hides
Notes on Power from
Periods 1 & 2:
- “This world belongs to the strong…rabbits become sly and frightened” pg. 64 This sums up the book.
- The above quote ties to the symbols of rabbits and wolves (rabbits are the patients—sly/frightened—and the nurse/staff are the wolves—strong and powerful)
- Power isn’t earned in this novel, but gained through manipulation, control and fear
- The power people have can influence the stability of others (Nurse’s power vs McM’s power)
- Nurse and McM trade power back and forth; in the end, McM has no power, so Chief takes it (he’s now strong enough to do so)
- McM with a lobotomy is a symbol of the Nurse’s power—hers seems to win in the end, but by killing McM, Chief ends Nurse’s power (depriving her of the ability to parade a beaten McM in front of the other patients)
- By killing McM, Chief continues McM’s message. Chief “saves” McM from a life of being “a vegetable”.
- Is power related to gender?
- McM seems to think a woman loses power through sex while a man gains it (that seems to be his attitude)
- For most of the book, Nurse is robotic and sexless and she emasculates the men on the ward. After McM rips off her uniform, the patients see her as human and vulnerable—even in a new uniform they see her as human
- Also, Billy Bibbit gains power through having sex (stops stuttering). He starts again when the Nurse coolly reminds him of his mother’s disappointment
- McM is unlike the other patients by being a confident individual
- In this novel, power comes from physical strength (McM has physical power); intelligence (Nurse uses this in a manipulative way, McM matches it); community (McM helps patients form bonds); mental illness (on the fishing trip the men learn the power in being seenas mentally ill)
- McM shows the men how they can use their problems to their advantage and how this can build their confidence
- When people are labelled as mentally ill, they lose a lot of power
- Why would Nurse want to keep the patients weak and sick?
- Pills are a symbol of the power to control the patients, make them weak “rabbits”
- Again the quote that the men at the end of the book are no longer sick rabbits, but sick men is mentioned.
- Power often can come from fear and shame.
- Power can come from using people’s differences against them.
- The Nurse has power over the whole ward, she points out weaknesses and makes the men feel shame. The first group therapy session is a “pecking party” where all the men bring each other down instead of building each other up
- Nurse gets the patients to fear her so that they will obey her. Nurse uses shame and fear.
- McM asserts his power by disobeying her.
- Often an authority figure might abuse his or her power because of a lack of boundaries. No one oversees the nurse
- Over the course of the book, Chief gains his power back through McM and the confidence he gives the men
- Nurse controls the pills which disrupts people’s thinking.
- The fishing trip is related to the men reclaiming their power—they have an adventure, capture fish, have fun, and bond
- With no restrictions on the Nurse’s power, she can abuse the patients and take away their sense of control
- Voice is also an important symbol. McM and the nurse have powerful voices and use them to influence others. The men try to tune out her voice yelling at them when they “watch” the World Series. Also, at the end of the book, her voice is softer because it has been damaged my McM’s choking
- Nurse’s calmness is a source of her power, too. She remains calm and cool when others show emotion.
- Wolves and Rabbits show power—wolves have all the power and rabbits are little, must hide, and must respect the wolves
- The glass panel is a symbol. It divides those with power (nurses/staff) from those without (patients). It is also a fragile division. McM breaks it twice to make a point, then a patient ends up breaking it a third time. The glass panel is also transparent…the patients are under surveillance all the time, there is no privacy for them.
- The fishing trip allows men to see that they have power and they embrace their illnesses
- Medication and therapies like EST and lobotomies are symbols…the nurse uses this to control them. She determines who gets what. She gets to control their behaviour.
- We see when Chief is cleaning during the staff mtg, that Nurse has more power than the doctors…she is determining patients’ treatment and the residents are trying hard to impress her
- Sometimes, rebellious acts can lead to the overthrowing of societal rules.
- McM gains power by getting the patients to join the World Series work strike, the breaking of the glass panel, the fishing trip, the party…the culmination of all this is Chief braking free of the institution.
- Nurse also controls the clocks (clocks represent time…slowing it or speeding it up… and time symbolizes life…she controls their lives)
- Nurse also controls the music that is piped into the ward…its loud and overpowering…there’s no escape from it until McM helps secure the tub room for the men.
- Group therapy is another way Nurse controls the patients and exerts her power.
Notes on Society from
Periods 1 & 2:
- Sometimes, society is capable of suppressing freewill and individuality with certain people, especially individuals who are sensitive to judgement, and this can cause those individuals to isolate themselves, especially if they are different.
- If someone is able to see their individuality through their own eyes with admiration, society will tend to believe that the individual is worthy of those differences and see that individual with similar eyes.
- People in a society often think they can choose who they are, but in reality, everything is chosen for them according to society’s ideal of what is right and wrong.
- No one is really free; we are all controlled by society. This is the Combine
- What does society do with the leftovers of the Combine? Send them to the institution—the centre of society to either be made acceptable or keep them and their dangerous ideas away from society.
- The machine also represents society
- In the hospital ward, Kesey shows the struggle between society and non conformists
- McM is a symbol of free will; he lets the men just be themselves.
- Society has judged McM, but he doesn’t care, other’s judgement of him do not affect his sense of self
- McM is more than just a tough guy, though, he shows vulnerability at different points. He is complex.
- He tries to show the others that judgement from others is not a big deal. Everyone has problems and it is okay. The patients shouldn’t be in a hospital, wasting their lives. Epilepsy, homosexuality, stuttering and anxiety are not reasons to be in a mental hospital.
- Society deems McM to be mentally ill just because he is an individual.
- McM tries to reclaim power on the ward for the patients. He is determined to take away Nurse’s power; he does this and becomes a martyr. His experiences and ultimate death gives strength to others. His example is to be strong and believe in oneself.
- Society judges outsiders very harshly. If you are less confident, society will treat you worse than someone with confidence.
- The Combine processes people to make them uniform, to separate those who conform from those who don’t.
- The Combine ensures conformity in a society. Society is manmade, therefore so is conformity.
- The machinery is important because this mechanical imagery represents unnatural conformity that forces people into behaving in certain ways. When they don’t conform, the nurse takes these “broken” people and either “fixes” them or discards them (they become the Chronics who never leave the ward).
- People need to interact in society in order to be healthy…the Combine reflected the time the novel was written, things don’t seem to be as bad today.
- The fog represents Chief hiding from society and their judgements; the fog represents giving up the fight to be oneself; when Chief accepts the ward’s routines, the fog increases and he submits to the higher power of the ward.
- The fog is something Chief must step out of in order to face society.
- The institution is the heart of society where those who don’t conform are kept; others in society cannot be allowed to see this place
- Sometimes people must struggle to claim their individuality.
- Period 1 began by defining what society is…I didn’t have time to write it all down.
- Often society makes outliers conform to what is seen as the correct way to live. The Combine is a great symbol of this . On pages 307-308, Harding and McM discuss what lead them to the ward. They feel they were pushed by society through belittlement, control, power. Society wants cookie cutter people
- The hospital is society. It never had a McM before because everyone before him were afraid of punishments and harsh treatments.
- McM gave the patients light and power
- Even today, not fitting in is a terrible feeling.
- Often, self identity can be determined by how someone views them.
- Society oppresses a person to fit into one group.
- With the Combine, society picks out bad sees and only chooses those who conform.
- All societies have had a Combine and we still marginalize people…we also still institutionalize people.
- Most patients were voluntary committals…they were more comfortable in the hospital than in society, which is saying something.
- The hospital is made up of those who control and those who are controlled. There are sometimes also rogue thinkers…these individuals can change others and show people how they can be individuals.
- In Chapter 22, Billy explains how he has been oppressed by society. He’d love to get a car, get a girl, etc, but if he gets out, he’ll feel too different and people will make him feel bad.
- Society isn’t as harsh today; there’s more diversity and more acceptance of differences.
- Patients are afraid of being weird—they’ve found a community within the hospital where they are less judged (except in group therapy)
- For the ward to change, someone has to trigger it.
- On pp 307-308, Harding says society condemned him for his actions…his actions on their own didn’t cause him shame, it was society’s judgement of him after the fact.
- Billy Bibbit was confident and not ashamed after his night with the girl, but when his relationship with his mother and her judgment of him was mentioned, he couldn’t live with the shame.
- Society’s messages can be reversed by giving people hope through personal acceptance.
- Humans are naturally social; we all want to find those who are similar to us and understand us.
