Watch this fascinating video of a woman and her story of mental illness; I think you will find it appropriate and applicable to Cuckoo's Nest. Then, in the comments section below, write a paragraph (minimum 8 sentences) that discusses your thoughts/feelings/reactions to what you've heard and learned and how this relates to Cuckoo's Nest. The best answers will use quotes from the novel in their responses.
The information and emotion that I received from this video was amazing. Ellen Saks is truly an inspirational woman and the courage it took to stand up and talk about her mental illness is even more incredible. She gave such a detailed insight on what it is like to live with the monsters that haunted her, it gave me a better idea on what people with schizophrenia are going through. As she stated, when people think of mental illness, they do indeed think of crazy, rambling, and psychotic lunatics (In most cases). People don't try to put themselves in the psychotic person's shoes. It is terrible that there are all these people, who just need a little help, in prisons or confinements. Some cases might need to be a little more controlled than others, but these people don't deserve the harsh treatment they are receiving. Saks was fortunate enough to receive the medication and hep she needed, unlike the men in our book. If the nurse had given them the proper treatment, instead of shock therapies and lobotomies, Bromden, Taber, Ellis, and all the other men could have been "cured" in the nurse's sense. They just want to be treated like normal people, "We fiddled around this way, fishing a little, drinking the other case of beer, and feeding the birds till afternoon, while the boat rolled lazily around the swells and the doctor worked with his monster from the deep." This is the first time the men have really gotten out of the ward in a while, and they take advantage of it. They don;t act like raging sociopaths, but instead normal people. We see the men at the gas station not putting gas in the car's tank because they find the doctor is from the ward or the men on the dock making fun of the patients, but in both cases they come to respect the ward's men. "They could sense the change that most of us were only suspecting; these weren't the same bunch of weak-knees from the nuthouse that they's watched take their insults on the dock this morning." The men on the dock start treating the patients like normal men, not some freak show, which the patients appreciate.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks’ speech was educational and gave me a new perspective on mental illness. Her speech’s main point was that there are mental illness stereotypes, that not enough people understand it, and there is a lack of sympathy for the mentally ill. People with mental illnesses are often left untreated, and end up as criminals even though the disease may have been the cause for his actions. When she described her experience as being restrained and how any other person, mentally ill or not, would not have wanted to be treated the same way, it reminds me of the ward’s faculty and the way they treat the patients. She also discussed how the public view mentally ill people as that and only that, instead a person with a particular mental illness. This reminds me of the scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest when the men are discussing that the Nurse is the main problem in the ward. “He asks Harding what he figures is wrong with her…They talk about it for a while about whether she’s the root of all the trouble here or not, and Harding says she’s the most of it.” (Kesey, p 180) Because Nurse Ratched does not view them as people, but rather patients who have no hope, she is not helping them get better in any way. This also related back to the part in the TED talk where Elyn Saks discusses her positive life with her mental illness is due to the support she gets from others, but in the ward the men are scared of the Nurse instead of being assisted by her. This speech taught me that mentally ill people do not choose to be the way they are, and in order for them to get better, they need support and the proper treatment.
ReplyDeleteToo often in media are those who have a mental illness portrayed as incapable of functioning in normal society, and sometimes even dangerous. However, Elyn Saks herself counters this stereotype with her impressive occupational record despite her diagnosis with schizophrenia. This sheds light on the state of mental patients from the point of view of society, as Elyn Saks embodies the true face of mental illness- a human with a difficult condition. Some of the obstacles she faced with this condition, including loose association, are not only distant from the well-adjusted woman she presents herself to be, but are also consistent with some of the events that take place in the ward. For example, Colonel Matterson, a Chronic in the ward, seems to have something that is consistent with loose association: “No...The flag is...Ah-mer-ica. America is...the plum. The peach. The wah-ter-mel-on. America is...the gumdrop. The pump-kin seed. America is...tell-ah-vision. (Kesey, page 135)” As some patients share the same symptoms of Mrs. Saks’ condition, this indicates that the difference between crumbling in a mental ward and a well-adjusted professional is the method by which one is cured. Mrs. Saks says that her current state is a result of a nurturing and effective treatment, as opposed to the forceful treatment that she also encountered in her past. When describing the “shock shop” to McMurphy, Harding says: “The thing is, no one ever wants another one. You...change. You forget things. It’s as if...the jolt sets off a wild carnival wheel of images, emotions, memories. These wheels, you’ve seen them; the barker takes your bet and pushes a button. Chang! With light and sound and numbers round and round in a whirlwind, and maybe you win with what you end up with and maybe you lose and have to play again. Pay the man for another spin, son pay the man. (Kesey, page 191)” This is an example of the ineffective method of force used by the Combine to “fix” the men. However, Elyn Saks presents a treatment model that is a happy medium between individuality and conformity, as she explains that therapeutic, nurturing treatments allows the patient to adjust to society while still having awareness of themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe video above I found to be very interesting. I always thought that schizophrenic where just crazy and not suppose to live a normal life. I thought it was so amazing how she had a mental illness but yet still went to college and is very intelligent. This really lets you understand what she was feeling and it lets you know what people with schizophrenia have to go through every day. It takes a lot of courage to be able to talk about her experiences like that, and it's also amazing on how her husband, "star of the act" is the biggest part in her life, Her husband really helps her a lot and I find that awesome, and hope I too have that connection later in life. This really ties in with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I say this because the video and the women with schizophrenia both tell about their daily lives with a mental illness and they both talk about how being forced and held down with leather straps is terrible. In the novel "Cuckoos Nest" they talk about how the EST was not helping you at all more like just making you numb and not be in the moment. On page 191, “The thing is, no one ever wants another one. You...change. You forget things. It’s as if...the jolt sets off a wild carnival wheel of images, emotions, memories. These wheels, you’ve seen them; the barker takes your bet and pushes a button. Chang! With light and sound and numbers round and round in a whirlwind, and maybe you win with what you end up with and maybe you lose and have to play again. Pay the man for another spin, son pay the man." This is a very good quote saying how force treatment is bad and they need to do more research on mental illness treatments.
ReplyDelete“There are not schizophrenics. There are people with schizophrenia.” This quote from Elyn Saks summarizes what I took away from this video. Elyn Saks is a successful woman who suffers from chronic schizophrenia. Despite experiencing the symptoms from this illness, Saks was able to graduate from Yale Law School and become a chaired Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry at the USC Gould School of Law. In her speech, she discusses her multiple encounters suffering from schizophrenia, while also talking about her determination and success that she used to achieve her goals. People who have mental illness are often categorized together, losing their individuality and personal stories through the stereotypes and prejudices of society. Elyn Saks broke away from this by succeeding in her occupation and living a somewhat normal life. This is not possible for all who suffer from mental illness, as some illnesses prevent the ability to live in society. But this did not burden Saks and instead of cowering behind her illness, she embraced it. Today she is able to work diligently and use her abilities to inform others of her experience. In the video she tells people about how it felt to be restrained and how people, with or without a mental illness, would not enjoy the sensation. By saying this she breaks the division between those who have mental illnesses and those who do not. In One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, the patients in the mental ward are always being secluded from the outside society. When a group of patients exit the ward to go on a fishing trip, their doctor lies to the man giving them gas saying, “We, they are from the asylum, but they are a work crew, not inmates, of course not.” (Ken Kesey, page 235) Hearing this, the patients were upset. Even though they were not physically separated from society by the walls of the ward, they were still divided by who they were. Elyn Saks declares that people are not defined by an illness they have and they should not be labeled by this illness.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks is a truly inspirational individual. She has been able to overcome many obstacles in her life. She is clearly a strong and brave person with an abundance of determination. Her speech opened my eyes and gave me a brand new perspective about mental illness. Prior to viewing this TED talk, when thinking of one who is mentally ill, I imagined a disfunctional person with little ability to help their problems, situation or to better themselves in general. However, Mrs. Saks demonstrated an entirely different approach. Instead of allowing her illness to bring her down, she has worked through it and is still a successful member of society. This speech reminded me of a quote that I saw somewhere just last week. It read: “Stop labeling, start living.” Mrs. Saks has definetely done this. She has not allowed her illness, or her label as someone with schizophrenia, to stop her from living a successful life. Mrs. Saks proves that with the proper care and aid, those who suffer from mental illness can overcome their issues. When talking about her experience in the hospital with restraints, Mrs. Saks speaks of a conversation that she had with a law professor who was also a physciatrist. “You don’t really unsderstand. These people are physcotic. They are different from me and you.” Ellen goes on to say, “I did not have the courage to say no, we are not that different from him.” Although this conversation was discussing the topic of restraints, for me, in conjunction with the rest of Mrs. Sak’s speech, it had a deeper meaning. Those who suffer from mental illness are people too. They are not any worse than others, they are different. fter all as Mrs. Saks said, “There are not schizophrenics, there are people with schizophrenia.” Similar to the activity we did in the beginning of Cuckoo’s Nest, everybody is crazy in their own way. As Dr. Suess once said, “We are all a little weird.” Those who suffer from mental illness should not be degraded and treated poorly becuase of it, like they are in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Big Nurse believes that the patients are incapable of being functioning members of society without major alterations. On page forty, Cheif discusses the hospital. He says, “ Something that came all twisted and different is now a functioning, adjusted component, a credit to the whole outfit and a marvel to behold.” Instead of looking at those who suffer from mental illness as inferior or incapable, people need to recognize that with proper care, they can be fully functioning members of society.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks description of her struggles with schizophrenia was enlightening in many ways. I was intrigued by her description of the loose association caused by psychosis; her uses of multiple meaning of the words “grave,” “case,” and “joint” to link together totally unrelated ideas was fascinating to me. It gave me some insight into the mind of a person with schizophrenia; the loose connections and meandering ideas that linger in the back of a mentally healthy person’s mind are forced the front and arranged into what seems like a perfectly coherent train of thought. Her description of the experience of hallucination and her belief that she had killed hundreds of people provided more such insight, as did her description of some of her psychotic episodes. The insight Saks provides into the workings of an unwell mind gave me some perspective on the very strange behavior of some of the more far-gone patients in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, like Martini and the old Colonel. At first glance, it seems that patients like these, who are completely out of touch with reality, are indeed too far gone to be helped, and society’s response of shutting them away in a hospital where people like Nurse Ratched can tend to them and keep them off the public’s conscience seems warranted. Hearing Elyn Saks’ story of recovery, however, shows that locking away people like Martini and the Colonel is in fact a totally inappropriate response, seeing as Saks, at her worst, was easily as delusional as them, but is able to live a totally normal life after receiving proper treatment. This shows that not only is the Nurse’s treatment of the patients a terrible injustice, but that the fact that society’s approach to turning these people back into normal, functioning members of society is to shut them away in a mental hospital is also totally unjust. The fact is that as long as something seems to be getting done about any given issue, people tend to stop worrying about it, even if the issue is only being exacerbated by the supposed “solution.” When McMurphy expresses shock and disgust over the use of the electroshock therapy as a method of treatment, Harding points out this grim truth to him, saying, “I don’t think you fully understand the public, my friend; in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way.”
ReplyDeleteThe ability for Mrs. Saks to stand up in front of a mass crowd of people is truly inspirational. Talking about her view of her illness, life story, and on treatments for her disease, Mrs. Saks proves to not be shy about who she is as a person. She states that her disease may have gotten her to live half her life in the hospital, but if it weren't for her disease, she wouldn't be a professor at a law school, a loving wife to her beloved husband, or an approachable person with many friends. It was touching when she put her own opinion on television programs portraying the mentally ill in a enlightening way and blocking out the stigma and stereotypes of a mental illness. Mrs. Saks gave insight into her life as a schizophrenic women and described the ways she would fall into when suffering from this illness. As she reads off recorded events of her episodes it is truly inspirational that she is able to talk about them in such an enlightening way. Not only does it provide insight of the disease, but it also creates awareness from all of the people that watch. Her descriptions of her paranoid thoughts caught my attention. She describes from her memory that she has thoughts of being the killer of mass murders due to her thoughts. She also states that occasionally she feels that a nuclear bomb will go off in her head. Mrs. Saks' story connects to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and the characters within the book. Mrs. Saks' speech intertwined with the book because her main focus of her speech was that the mentally ill are real people too. She says "Although they may have an illness you may not, they are still human beings." This connects with Cuckoo's Nest because the patients in the ward all have mental illnesses. Nurse Ratched treats these patients like they are toys. She handles them and situations carelessly not realizing the pain it may emotionally cause them. Patients such as Martini may not seem like real people, but on an emotional level, they function just as we do. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest's level of complexity when it comes to the treatment of the patients cannot compare to any other. Throughout the story, the patients are able to leave the ward whenever they please, but living in there for so long has scared them from the outside society. Unlike Saks, the patients are unable to live a real life outside of the ward because of what they call "treatment" to fix them. When McMurphy has a conversation with Harding and Scanlon he says, "hoo-wee! Electricity through the head. Man, thats like electrocuting a man for murder." (Kesey, 190) As they continue to talk, Harding says, "The thing is, no one ever wants another one. You...change. You forget things." (Kesey, 191) This shows that the doctors performing the lobotomies don't give a second thought about what they do. Its a job, but it ruins the minds of the patients. As they "fix" the patients, they scare them from what society actual is rather than what they portray it to be. As Mrs. Saks said, "there are not schizophrenics in this world, just human beings with schizophrenia."
ReplyDelete“The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illness we may not.” I found this to be a very great and profound statement by Mrs. Saks. It is so easy in life to breeze over issues and to continue with our own successes, but I felt that she conveyed great points that we are all humans, and despite personal difficulties, we all want to contribute and feel valued. As I look at the great similarities between One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Mrs. Saks’ speech, I hear them both shouting the same idea: Those with mental illness are still people. Society, please do not throw them away like subordinate mistakes. If one were to take a summary of the speech and a summary about the theme of the novel, they would in turn be the same. I also feel that this video gave me a more realistic approach to what Kesey is trying to tell. It is easy for me to read the novel, and imagine the elements of the book, as I had never been anywhere close to a mental ward. Mrs. Saks however gave a first hand account, which was very powerful. According to Mrs. Saks’ views on mental illness treatment, the ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would be significantly less than satisfactory. Force, is not the answer she says. However, force is something definitely practiced within Nurse Ratched’s ward. They force patients to take pills, conduct lobotomies, the Shock shop, and finally forcing them to yield their individuality. The treatments are done without patients’ consent, as the nurses and doctors, a.k.a society, say that they know whats best for them. This even strips them from right to think for themselves. “Why for the patient’s good, of course. Everything done here is for the patient’s own good.” (Kesey, pg. 189) This is said by Harding while he and McMurphy discuss Shock Therapy. I can’t help but read that sarcastically, knowing that Harding is on McMurphy’s side and disagrees with his statement. However, Mrs. Saks is able to overcome this suppression of mental illness, hold a job at a university, care for her family, and spread awareness on this topic. For that, I hold a tremendous amount respect for her.
ReplyDeleteI admire Mrs. Saks for being able to stand up, tell her story, and share the struggles she has had in life. I thought that her speech was very interesting, and had several key points that could be tied into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. She also gave me insight into the mind of someone who has schizophrenia, and I took away a lot of information from this TED Talk. For example, she said that it is very ineffective to use force with the patients, and to treat them like ordinary people, because they are no different from "you and I". Mrs Saks explained that force is not the answer, but Nurse Ratched relies on force and fear to control the patients in the ward. The "treatments" are carried out without the patient's permission, and the nurses and society treats them like they don't matter and aren't people. It's not fair to the patients that they are treated so poorly, especially because most of them aren't even there by force. If Nurse Ratched had given the patients proper treatment, she would have cured a lot of people, like Taber, and made their lives happier and healthier. I admire Mrs. Saks strength and am glad she had the courage to speak about her life and spread awareness about people with schizophrenia. I am impressed by Mrs Saks’ speech, and have respect for her and the willingness she has to stand up for a problem that is so personal and prominent in her life.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks’ speech provided an intelligent insight for what it is like to have a mental illness. I was able to really understand and form a better knowledge of what it is like and how people must deal with an illness like that. She has extreme strength and courage to be able to stand in front of a crowd like that and be able to talk about how much she once struggled with a mental illness. She provided a completely different approach to what it feels like to have something like this and what it feels like. She didn't let her illness change her mindset and how she lives her life. She fought through it and did anything possible to help herself. Her speech gave me a different understanding of what Kesey is telling through his patients. He is trying to explain how trapped and held back the patients feel, like Saks explained in the video. She talked about how she always felt restrained and like she was constantly being held back by something, like the patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She explained how people with schizophrenia are people just like you and me and how they are not schizophrenics, they are people with schizophrenia. This helped me realize how difficult to be living with something you know is almost impossible to get rid of. Overall, this video was extremely insightful and gave me a new feeling of how the patients feel inside of the ward.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks is an inspirational figure and a hero to many individuals. She has been able to overcome many obstacles throughout her life and will continue to do so. I thought that it was incredible that Mrs. Saks had the courage to stand up in front of a large crowd and talk about her mental illness of chronic schizophrenia. I thought that her story of graduating from Yale Law School and becoming a chaired professor of law with such a severe condition was inspiring. Being a schizophrenic you would think that she would be independent and not have much of a social life, but she says that she has many close friends and that her husband is the “star of the act.” This speech from Elyn Saks ties into the book “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in many ways. Both Mrs. Saks and Chief and the patients talk through the point of view of a mentally ill person. Also Mrs. Saks describes about her time of being tied down and says it is not beneficial for anyone and that 2-3 people die a week from being tied down. I liked the quote from Elyn Saks that said, “There are not schizophrenics. There are people with schizophrenia.” This quote shows that Mrs. Saks has a positive mindset and will continue to be positive and strive on.
ReplyDeleteThis TED talk is particularly interesting because of what we are currently reading. Mrs. Sak's recounting of how much her restraints bothered her parallels Bromden's feelings of conformity including the fog and the ideas of powerlessness. Elyn Sak's ideas also reminded me of how the Colonel created associations between words that seemed to be crazy but simply made "a different kind of sense." Furthermore, Mrs. Sak's ideas on medication are familiar to readers of Cuckoo's Nest, as Bromden is beginning to resist taking his medications. Kesey's ideas of nonconformity are also similar to Sak's. She describes all of her friends finding her to be extremely odd and not really very comforting, some of them asking if "she was on drugs," which again rings of Kesey's beliefs that nonconformity is good. Overall, this was a very interesting Ted talk because it allowed me to learn more of schizophrenia from a first-hand perspective. I enjoyed it and will be sure to bring up similarities in our next fishbowl.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought when Saks was describing a psychotic experience was how close it was to the stereotype of psychosis. I had always thought that the constant mumbling and paranoia was an exaggeration of popular culture against schizophrenia, though Bromden doesn’t experience any of Elyn’s symptoms except the hallucinations. In her description of her hospital visit in America, she recounts, “[The Doctor and his team of goons] strapped my arms and legs to the metal bed with thick leather straps,” along with Elyn’s comments about her psychotic references to God reminded me vividly of Bromden’s and McMurphy’s experiences in the ward where they are told that, “You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns.” Saks also says that she spent up to 20 hours in mechanical restraints like Ellis in the novel even though she was never a threat. She was also avoiding medications as long as possible like Selfelt in order to avoid her own form of the fog. Next, she mentions that one of the greatest contributors to her being able to function in society is contact and support with other people. In the ward, the nurse practices the complete opposite; she restrains people and isolates them from everyone else because they’re different. “There are not "schizophrenics." There are people with schizophrenia,” I think this sums a major theme in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and is a great view to take when trying to destigmatize mental illnesses.
ReplyDeleteElyn Saks became a successful person, a lawyer, a professor that teaches at a prestigious university, a wife, all while dealing with schizophrenia her whole life. She, like many characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has always had trouble dealing with the outside world. She had also (unsuccessfully) tried to fight her mental illness without medication, also like many characters in the book. Her psychotic fits were disturbing, to her and other people around, similar to some of the fits of the Chronics on the ward. She explains how she has spent many hours of her life in mental wards. Just like the patients in the ward, she thought that some of the mental ward's practices were unorthodox, uncomfortable, as well as potentially damaging for the patients. Elyn Saks explained how ‘There are not schizophrenics. There are people with schizophrenia”. She told us how that she and everyone else with schizophrenia were regular people that just need a little help.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Saks speech was very interesting, it taught me that people with mental illnesses can actually be normal and act regular. She is actually very smart and went to the Yale Law School and became very successful even tho she has schizophrenia. She didn’t let the diesase take over her life but instead she overcame it and studied about it. She talks about how she’s against into people forcing other people to do things. That made me think of how Mcmurphy doesn’t like being forced into things by Nurse Ratchet. Mrs. Saks also talks about how when she didn’t take her medication she had visions of weird things that caused her illness to be bad. That reminded me when Chief didn’t take his medication and he thought he was in a factory with workers surrounding him. I like how Mrs. Saks story kind of related into One Flew Over the Cuckcoo’s Nest. She also said that she can be strong with her illness three ways due to excellent treatment, many close family and friends, and a supportive work place.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting aspect of this lecture was the eerie description of her experience with schizophrenia. I was able to get a glimpse into the scizophrenic mind, and that is an opportunity that very few people have. Her analogies were very though-provoking, as she described her disease as “being in a nightmare while awake”. She also struck a cord when she mentioned that the schizophrenic mind is “not split, but shattered”. On top of this, her protrayal of the utter incoherence she suffered from her disease was quite enthralling and creepy. Her point on the fact that mental illness is criminalized has a similarity to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The men in the ward are seen as dangerous criminals, especially when they go out on their fishing trip. “He [the service station attendant] stopped grinning and went..to see just what was in these cars… he was looking around him to see if there was a wrench or something handy… ‘you guys are from that asylum.’” This displays just how terrified people are of mentally handicapped individuals. Mental patients should not be criminalized or looked down upon because their problems are the result of a genetic mutation or anomaly, and are not at all their fault or under their control.
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