Tho most influential book that I have read might be One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The book just really shed a new light on how patients are treated in mental institutions and how they can be helpless. The reason it made a big impact on me was because Kesey used some of his real life experiences of when he worked in a mental institution in his book, so it wasn't completely fiction. It really started getting me thinking that the enviroment that some mental institutions have are probably not the right place for people who are mentally ill and need help. They can often be treated as prisoners more than patients.
It also made me think about what would happen if I was ever in a mental institution. Would people believe me if I really told them if I wasn't crazy? Just like McMurphy, who wasn't insane, people from the outside assumed he was because he was in the mental home and the Big Nurse made people believe that he was.
If I was ever in McMurphy's situation it would definitely play mind games with me. I might start to believe that I was actually crazy when in reality I wasn't, just because everyone around me is telling me that I am. It makes me wonder if some mental institutions are doing more harm that good to its patients.
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2 comments:
Thanks for the post! Have you seen this movie too? It also stuck with me (I worked in mental health for a while, so it was a really good thing to see/read).
Don't forget to post on the books/call numbers you found for your 'Healthy Skeptic' paper, too.
I saw the movie, I really liked it. Jack Nicholson is great as McMurphy.
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