The Depiction of Mental Illness: Then and Now

In time all things change. That statement is not an opinion but a fact. The changing of all things made me curious to see what the change in the fictional depictions mental institutions in history and now. To properly compare the two, I critically analyzed a two fictional works of art: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (the book) and It's Kind of a Funny Story (the movie). After much analysis I discovered a plethora of differences between these two fictional stories.

The largest difference I discovered between the two works of art is the treatment of patients by the ward staff. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the treatment of patients is beyond disgusting. Patients are constantly dehumanized by all of the workers of the ward. They are seen as objects that society has refused to acknowledge; the only job of ward employees is to keep the patients from self-destruction. In many mental institutions in the past, the unwillingness for mental illness education led to patients suffering from mental illness to be dehumanized in the book; however, this is the complete opposite portrayal of mental illness in It's Kind of a Funny Story. The immense increase of depression in Americans led to the focus of the movie to a teenage mentally ill patient, Craig. When Craig enters the mental ward in the local hospital, the treatment of patients couldn't be further from the depiction in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. All patients are personalized and individualized. ALL of the staff on the ward was very educated on each person  and understood the specifications needed for each disorder. This personalized approach clearly made each patient feel human and helped the progress profoundly, where as the patients in the book felt like rabbits rather than humans. I think this shows a large improvement in the care-taking of mentally ill patients. Because of the efforts to educate the country on mental illness, ward employees understand the importance of treating every patient like a human.

The other enormous difference between these two incredible depictions of mental illness is the way mental illness is viewed by the staff of the ward. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, mental illness is a disease that no one wants to catch. The employees keep barriers between themselves and the employees: again not seeing them as actual people but as discarded objects. The patients are tossed-out members of society that will never be able to re-enter it because they are too different. That is how the staff saw patients in history; they couldn't help them, they could only try to beat them into conforming to the rules of the ward. This is completely opposite to the way the patients are viewed by the staff in It's Kind of a Funny Story. Instead of viewing mental illnesses, such as depression and bipolar disorder as mental, they view it as medical. Dr. Minerva has an iconic line in the movie that explains the new depiction of mental illness: "Depression is a medical illness. If you had diabetes would you be ashamed of that?" She explains that mentally ill people shouldn't be embarrassed or tossed-out of society but should own their illness as medical and work to be treated like a diabetes patient. That line clearly shows the change in society's view on mental illness.

Analyzing these two fascinating pieces of work provided a lot of insight into the nation's opinion of mental illness. It was incredible to see the changes found in history and today. In this case I'm so happy that all things change because they changed for the better.