Thursday, April 23, 2009
Voluntary Patients
When McMurphy finds out that most of the patients are on the ward voluntarily. McMurphy can't understand why they are still there, since they are always complaining. When he goes on a rant questioning the patients, Billy is the only one who responds and says they're not tough enough for the outside world. Why do you think the patients are in the ward? Is it that they really can't function in the outside world, or are they just hiding from their problems?
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13 comments:
I honestly believe that some of them are not mentally insane and cannot function in the outside world. For example, Harding has a wife and could possibly live a normal life. However, he seems extremely nervous and paranoid and was probably worse in the outside world. When his wife came to visit him, he seemed nervous around her and tried to talk to her like a good husband should. He is also very insecure, especially when it comes to his hands.
I agree with Ariel, in that Harding could be on the outside, but because he has become so accustomed to life on the ward, he doesn't want to go back to the pressures of normal society, an example being the fact that he can't satisfy his own wife. His inability to deal with his own inadequacy, not mental instability, keeps him in the ward. However, patients such as Fredrickson, who suffer from epilepsy should remain on the ward because they are not accepted as normal in society and would be shunned due to their disorder and not seen as "right". Some patients, like Harding, may stay on inside because it helps them to feel superior (being that they function better than other patients) as opposed to their lives on the outside in which they are "inferior".
I believe that the patients aren't as insane as they make themselves out to be. I think most of the voluntary patients can live lives outside of the hospital but they have it in their head that things like a stutter as in Billy's case or insecurity as in Harding's case are worse then they appear to be. I think the reason they don't leave the ward is because they know everyone else on the ward has a "problem" so they are no longer alone and therefore their "problems" aren't as bad and to them that gives them some security.
I think that the patients in the ward would be able to function in society, but have been told their whole lives that they can not. If they go their entire life being told by their superiors that they ARE insane and that they can not function with the rest of society, then they basically force themselves into believing it because it is all that they know they are. I believe that they are hiding from their problems, but the only reason they are hiding is because they don't know how to face them.
I think the patients are in the ward because they are afraid of the world. They feel safe in the fog of the ward. Also, they are living amongst other people who are just like them. They are not insane, but rather just afraid, contrary to what the rest of society thinks.
I agree with Andy because the Acutes could function in society none of them seem to have extream cases of mental or physical disabilities. They all have minor disabilities like stuttering or insecurity but those could be easily over come. Unfortunately society doesn't give them the chance to try instead they are labeled insane.
I think that when mcmurphy finds out about the voulntary admission to the hospital, he meets his breaking point. When he breaks the nurses station window, it really shows that he has gotten to the point in which he doesnt care about what happens to him anymore and it seems as if he is about to rage an all out war against the big nurse and her rule over the ward. McMurphy seems like he cant take much more of this anymore.
I agree with TJ, because I believe that the reason for the patients being in the ward is due to them being scared of the world.The safest are for them is the "fog" becuase they are with a bunch of people who are also scared of the outside world. I also believe that TJ is right when he said,there not insane there just scared.
I think that the patients in the ward becuase in there minds they feel like they can not function in the society that they live in. There whole life they have been told by others that they are insane. But the truth of the matter is that they are just scared and dont know how to overcome there fears.
I think that most of them are on the ward because they would not be able to survive in life in the outside. But some of them are just too scared to be on their own and afraid of being by themselves. All of the chronics would not be able to act normally in society because their brains have been fried by EST or lobotomy or just mistreatment of the medicine. Some of the acutes however are just cowards and can't stand up for themselves so they feel that they will be there forever.
I belive that most of the poeple on the ward have a overpowering fear being rejected from the outside world. This fear is the result of there "safty blanket," the ward where they recevied many treatments such as lobotomy and EST. When people enter the ward they are not in my mind crazy, they simply did not fit in or adapt to there surroundings.
I completely agree with Hunter's comment. The patients have been instilled with a sence of under-acheivment and that they are "un-fit" for the outside world. The patients may have entered sane, with only a few problems, but they are staying in the ward, now riddled with psychological disorders.
I believe that the voluntaries came to the hospital in hopes of being cured. However, the Nurse aggravated their conditions and made them see their problems as completely debilitating, thus preventing them from being able to leave the safety of the ward.
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