Mental Illness = Power?

DOES MENTAL ILLNESS = POWER?

       A good point brought up in the last section of part three of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is that...: Does mental illness have the aspect of power? Perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become?.see ....power and mental illness..

     Hitler for example...or is this all in ones head? when the boys take their fishing trip, they are stopped at a gas station, the attendant there seems unwilling to help, in fact he seems to give them a great deal of difficulty. McMurphy, the pain in the rear he normally is, doesn't step out of character and comes to the rescue. He gives the attendants exactly what he knew would deter them. Fear.. He goes over the (fake) details of their convictions admitting that they are a bad group. This giving the boys a little "bravado and courage"...and what it can do..

      Hitler is in fact a great example, he most certainly wasn't of sound mind, he must to some extent be completely loony to order the deaths of 50,000 Jews in one week. With fear comes power. People were to scared to cross him, they knew their fate if they did. so did his mental illness lead to power? or did his power lead to his mental illness? one could argue both points, and to some extent both would be correct. see...Adolf_Hitler

   "food for thought here.."  The the Nurse for example she deals with mental illness on a daily basis and she has power...The power to control the men and their daily activities, bathroom breaks, food and whether or not they will be drugged. She's taking the power a little too seriously i think..its turning her mad...going to her head...leading to a mental illness? Becoming the Asylum Hitler? see... Nurse Ratched

       You can take a look throughout our history, (more so in American history though)..and see how power has led to mental illness and how mental illness allows for the belief of having power. Charles Manson, again...cuckoo out of his tree, convinces people to not only become his followers but to in fact act of crimes and murder people in order to please him. I'm sure feeding them full of drugs had something to do with it. but never the less his mental illness brought about his power, and his power allowed for the stealing, murdering and vandalism that occurred. You can see his mental issues in the words he chose in a song he wrote....see... Lyrics to a song written by Charles Manson. Not the most stable man I'd think..

    Although the boys saw how their mental instability can be frightening towards others, they are still ashamed. Not that they are ashamed of the lies being told about them, but that they are afraid of the truth. It is a bit scary to see a car full of patients from an asylum come through, but did they attendants act appropriately? or were they way out of line? .....were they acting out of fear or was it their own insecurities of their own stability? 

i most certainly wouldn't want to be the one to aggravate a carload of patent's...i think people should be treated with respect, they way you would want to be treated.. now I'm not saying I do so on a regular basis, I'll admit there's a few people who get under my skin and i couldn't bring myself to be nice if i tried. But for the most part unless you give me a reason to disrespect you, you'll be treated fairly. 

       

The Fog...

 

 

 

...THE FOG...

 

 

 



When you think about the fog in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, you think of chief Bromden, as he is our acting narrator. He describes the fog as a thick and suffocating. Disorientating to himself and his fellow 'inmates'! Perhaps this is no more than a hallucination or he's merely just falling asleep? in one part of the book (pg.117) when the fog finally clears, the boys are all moving around un-concerned, as if nothing had happened..he thinks the fog must have affected thier memory...but not his! I personally think he's having flashbacks from the war. Vietnam i think.. Air raide...Air Raide... The Fog has got to be some idication of his own mental un-clairity."you loose yourself in the fog" any one who can stand beside a picture of a person fly fishing and say that he cant hear what they were saying because the of " the crash of the cold, frothy stream coming down out of the rocks." has got to be in some way or another lets say..off his rocker... how can he be the only one affected by the fog? why does no one else see the fog coming in from the vents? and from under the beds? His excuse seems to be that its the poison pills they keep feeding them keep them unaware and controlled. And why is McMurphy not affected by anything? Why have they not gotten to him yet? Although he seems to be on to something here, they do in fact medicate institutions to keep them controllable, and keep their outbursts to a minimum. In order not to scare or aggravate other patients. I get where they are going with that one, perhaps its not necessary everyday maybe they can reduce it to when outbursts occur. Or if the patients very unruly.

In one part, i believe they were all sitting in a therapy session, when Chief says the heads were floating around his, he was floating himself and he could hear them speak faintly. One of the "black boys" as he calls them, is saying to him as he comes to that he fell asleep again. Again? Does he do this regularily? Maybe he suffers from Night Terrors? Shell Shock? Is it just crazy flashbacks? I can see how someone trying to repress a memory it might overwelm them, stressing them out beyong recognition, and they may in fact act out in other ways such as acquiring a  new ocd! I know I dont seem to remember things..expecially the ones i dont want to!   

The Beginning...LSD..

LSD & The Cuckoo's Nest

'One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' is a novel written by Ken Kesey. It is loosely based on his life and experiences. Some people say that the main character Chief Bromden is Ken Kesey himself. He enrolled in Stanford University in 1958 and began writing the novel OFOTCN. A year later he volunteered to be part of the CIA's experiment as a guinea-pig in Project MKULTRA to test LSD among other drugs. He and his Merry Pranksters traveled around in a crazy painted bus and hosted parties which he called 'Acid Tests' . these parties included  black-lights, fluorescent paints, strobes and of course the music of his favorite band and fellow pranksters 'The Grateful Dead.' LSD is a huge part of the 1960's as well as this novel! Of course we all know he was high as a kite when he wrote it! Kesey said when he was tripping out on LSD he frequently saw and Indian person in his hallucinations and of course the main character of the novel is in fact an Indian.Many of his personal experiences when working at the Vetran's Hospital play a part in this novel. Why was LSD such a huge thing in the 1960's? Why Is it not a commonly used drug anymore? ....Ahh maybe because its a hell of a drug and scares the hell out of us now rather than opening us up to the 'free love' felt in the 1960's. All of our subliminal messages through commercials and movies, have in fact gotten to us? we don't believe in free love anymore, in fact we are quite the opposite, we lock our doors and night and every time we step out of our car, we dont have the same trust as we did before, everyone doesn't love each other in fact we hate each other. we have so much fear now a days with 9/11 and conspiracy theories, there's not a chance in hell we would be able to use LSD we'd freak out so bad its not even funny, we don't have an open mind and and open heart. no love just fear, i know when i used to do a lot of extacy, at first it was ok and fun and comfortable but i was with people who i could trust and it was at a cottage, i was safe away from all the crap of the world, all the evil things that can creep their way into your head. but a change of scenery and the whole thing got flipped right upside down, i was freaking..never again.. there's no way id be able to handle LSD, nor do i think many people could. Funny thing i watched a documentary last night  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKi7JKE1TRQ called "Peyote to LSD" from the history channel it was very informative, all these illegal substances were first found and used by natives as a medicine to heal the mind and soul, then the government got a hold of them and tested them on army boys to see the effect it has over mind control, then leaked to the public....funny how that happens.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyy72WbpgS8