insanity of conformity: one flew over the cuckoos nest PART1

Freud’s structural theory of the mind; parallels the formation of our civilization. We live in a society where we are meant to be conformed by rules of behavior. It is how we live our lives and with which culture that we define ourselves, and that we create our history. Our individual background or way we were raised gives civilization permission to oppress us into thinking a certain way and thus behaving ¨properly¨ as to their rules. Our behavior in the real world becomes so structured by our society, that any break from that mental code can define us (by civilization) as insane: Freud points out this theory in his book, Civilization and its Discontents. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey, our society is symbolized as a paradox of insane vs. sane; it’s an insane asylum where the patients are conformed into a structured routine which they carry out for as long as they are there, when they finally get ¨cured¨ they are free to leave (but too late for they are already mentally oppressed by the asylums rules of conduct.) Ironically, the asylum is controlled by a nurse who fits society’s code, and although she physically renounces some human flaws, she serves as a symbol for what I can argue as mentally insane rather than sane (she behaves too well, very mechanical, like civilization tends to). In the novel, I can argue about three characters that fight for their sane reputation; Mcmurphy, Chief Bromden, and Nurse Ratchet whom I say is the opposite: mentally ill.

McMurphy, the main character of the novel, is a professional con man, gambler, a sex addict (inaccurate opinion), a boxer, and according to his diagnosed psychological test, he is indeed a psychopath. He was sentenced to prison for a period of six months, but (thinking it be easier) he allowed himself to be sent into a mental institute instead. If you analyze McMurphy as a symbol for a human being, you see that he’s not really insane since none of those characteristics are actually ¨mentally destructive¨. You then realize that Kesey depicts this character exaggeratedly in order to demonstrate the extend of society’s oppression towards our social performance. This character is the novels main character because individually he represents many aspects of human nature, of martyrdom, and of real sanity and consciousness.

According to Freud, the idea of an individual being some what different than that expected by society, the person will immediately be framed as crazy. Of course he doesn’t state that in those words, but he does make an analogy to difference being insane. In McMurphys case, he is being judged by our social order to be crazy, accused by the idea that he doesn’t follow the public’s view of behavior. Kesey shows again (excessively) a suppression by our culture to bare humanity from self freedom; just because a man commits illegal gambling, coning, and likes to perform acts of consumption, that wont define him as crazy! Perhaps by using paradoxes, the author explains the idea of what our civilization really is; a machine that is so involved in working and perfecting all its flaws that it doesn’t really get to know the individuals that conform its mechanics: it forgets about the human essence that separate us from monotony and robots. Furthermore, to demonstrate the dominance of society to our existence, Kesey makes McMurphy a man with free will which he uses to satisfy civilization when he decides to enter the institute, convinced that it’s a safer place for him (symbol for the threat that our civilization carries).