One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

I do not consider the main character, Mr. McMurphy, to be mentally ill at all. In all honesty, I thought his deviant behaviors - from the vulgarities, to the confrontations and instigations with Nurse Ratched, to the disruptions with the rest of the patients - were quite comical. I say this because it was evident his actions were created to frustrate the staff. He knew they were observing his behavior, and he treated his stay there as a vacation from the penitentiary. His performance at the institution indicated his time there was a game, and he was going to have as much fun with it. However, if anyone got hurt in the process, was far beyond his expectations. Using the words “crazy and/or “dangerous” by the physicians earlier in the film, may imply that Mr. McMurphy is not necessarily a danger to his overall health, but that he is disruptive in his manner of defiance toward authority or rules and regulations. It would seem that he is not intentionally putting others at risk, but that he is unfocused (clueless) as to the consequences of his actions, and does not seem to be bothered much by those consequences unless something severely drastic happens, such as the incident with Billy’s suicide.Do you think that the Medical Model of Mental Illness or the Sociological Model of Mental Illness is more useful in today’s society? Provide evidence to support your claim. I believe that both the Medical and Sociological Models of Mental Illness are useful in today’s society. They should be used together in order to assess an individual’s behavior simply because social norms and societies in different parts of the country have changed drastically over the decades. One example could be the issue of abortion and/or sexual promiscuity. Years ago, when abortion was illegal and unspoken of, there were countless stories of young girls who became pregnant out of wedlock who were sent away. Years ago, this type of behavior (sexual promiscuity) was considered deviant and abnormal. Aside from the trauma of either losing the baby, or giving the baby up for adoption, the negative social stigma related to pregnancy out of wedlock decades ago gave reason for parents to believe there was something (mentally) wrong or abnormal with their daughter. This created even more deviant behavior, the daughter believing herself that she is mentally ill as well, therefore giving more reason to have her medicated.

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