Groups can be defined as a number of people or objects that are located together or share something in common. Aware of it or not, everyone is classified in some sort of group. For example, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, all of the patients are groups together as ones with a mental illness. Based on the group you are in, it can cause you to act in certain ways. What causes this and why does this happen? Let’s see how we can use the novel as an example.
Reader #1-The group therapy sessions aren't helping anyone cope with their problems. The acutes stay quiet for the most part and nobody opens up because there are so many people around. Everyone is uncomfortable with the environment and they are afraid of the big nurse. The group focuses on the log book, which is where the patient's pretty much rat out the others, they write down what they say or do. They are pretty much doing all of the dirty work for the nurses. The meetings are the same every time, the nurse asks what the patients have done and never admitted to, nobody answers at first because they're scared, she stares at the acutes and puts them in a “trance” and then they spill. “That triggered something, some acoustic device in the walls, rugged to turn on just at the sound of those words coming from her mouth. The acutes stiffened. Their mouths opened in unison” (Kesey 50). One thing they do is only point out the flaws or stuff that they did wrong, so it’s not a therapy session it’s a forced confession. These sessions are not helpful to the patient's’ mental health at all, it makes them feel worse about themselves. It helps the nurse because they are admitting to things they have done, but they don't come out of these meetings anymore mentally stable or happy then they were before. in some cases they come out worse. The patients are too afraid to stand up for themselves, the big nurse isn’t welcoming or accepting so they just let her walk all over them. She intimidates them so they can’t get better. Reader #2-The group sessions have a sort of passive aggressive cycle, with very little being accomplished. I feel as though it is not helping Chief or McMurphy. People behave rather strangely at times, and this is one of them. As the group continues to erode and deteriorate each other, Chief is beginning to notice more, and in a way, evolve, improving himself and his attitude. Others in the group are helped a little bit, albeit in a non acceptable way. We may not see that right away, but I predict as the story goes on, We will continue to see improvements in both Chief and McMurphy, or at the very least, we will see them beginning to change Reader #3-Various things cause certain people to act out and behave differently. Given on the situation, one might feel threatened or attacked, causing them to lash out or cause a scene. In ¨One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest¨, they gather everyone and have a therapy session. During this session, some people attending were affected and made fun of. Knowing facts about mental illness, teasing and making fun of is a way of coping with your problems. The group was formed so that everyone had a chance to share and talk about their problems. When you attend these groups, you begin to notice a pattern based on the individuals talking. Some like to talk the whole time, some say a few things, and others say nothing. McMurphy was an individual who enjoys talking while Chief was an example of one who doesn't say much. Many times during these sessions someone is made fun of and are made helpless because they cannot defend themselves. These meetings are not always the most helpful. Reader #4-During the group sessions the Big Nurse tries to get the patients to talk by asking them questions continuously until someone answers. During this group session, Pete was a topic of discussion because he wouldn’t stop causing commotion. The text says “Pete never tried anything like that again, and he never will. Now when he starts acting up during a meeting and they try to hush him, he always hushes.” (Kesey 55) Due to Pete acting out the whole group put their effort into getting Pete to be quiet. After a while, the Big Nurse got frustrated and made the black boys take Pete out of the meeting and back to the day room. During the sessions, The Big Nurse has the role of asking the questions, the black boys are their to help out the big nurse, and the patients are their to answer the questions the Big Nurse asks so she can record their progress. However, most of the patients stay quiet during these sessions until one speaks up then they all chime in. These sessions are not helpful because whenever the nurse asks a questions the patients are scared to answer because they feel like they will be judged. Also the nurse asks questions that the patients already know about themselves, so admitting them to her isn’t going to do much to help them. The patients are afraid to stand up for themselves because they fear being moved to a different part of the ward. They believe if they act out against the nurse they will be put into the Disturbed ward, and they might have to endure shock therapy or even an operation. Sessions in the ward, do not help any patients in the ward because they are afraid to be themselves due to the fear of being judge or moved to a worse part of the ward. Reader #5-One day in the ward, the Big Nurse got all the patients together for their group therapy session and it was the first one in the book so far. Big Nurse says to the patients “Now. Who will start? Let out those old secrets.”They all just sat there in silence and didn’t say a word. Since no one decided to speak up, the nurse decided to bring up “past history” from that one book that everyone writes in about each other. That made everyone uneasy and sparked something in their brains to make them want to speak up all of the sudden. They all started yelling out confessions, saying things like “I tried to take my little sister to bed.” and “I killed my cat when I was six…”. It was very chaotic and odd because it seemed like they were all trying to out-do each other with what they have done. One patient, Pete, was sick of hearing everyone yell out all these things to please the nurse and he belted out saying, “I’m tired!” He kept saying it over and over again. The Big Nurse got aggravated and called the black boys to take him away since he was causing unnecessary commotion. I don’t think there’s roles in the group therapy sessions because it depends on their emotions that day. Obviously, there will always be one patient to talk first but, I don’t think it will always be the same. The sessions seem pointless to me because the patients don’t get to talk about their feelings and Big Nurse doesn’t give them advice on how to cope or encourage them to do good. The whole time they were confessing she repeatedly said yes and it was creepy. She made it seem like she was satisfied with it. All of the patients are honestly helpless because if they do decide to stick up for themselves, Big Nurse will just call in the black boys and they will do something to torture the patients and then nothing is solved. They’re all terrified and stay quiet because they don’t want to have to interact with the black boys. Reader #6-Chief bromden’s experience in the therapy sessions is weird. The group sessions are basically them talking about what they have done or tried to do in their life for them to get into the mental institution. The group focuses on them trying to deal with them being in there and overcoming the things that they had done. The patient’s don’t stand up for themselves because their scared too. They think that standing up for themselves is going to cause something bad. When the patients are talking about what they did to get in there as said in the quote ‘’ I tried to take my little sister to bed’’ there all talking about what they have done and overcoming what they did so can atleast get some grief about it. Reader #7-the group therapy sessions seem to be kind of awkward. i don’t think anyone really talks. they seem afraid. in the past, pete tried to tell them something about himself for once, but he just got punished for it. so now him and the others are probably just afraid to open up. nurse ratched is always the one to start criticizing or “picking on” someone. In the text, it says “Mr. McMurphy… my friend… i’m not a chicken, Im a rabbit. The doctor is a rabbit. .... All of us here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees… we need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place.” (Kesey 64) Nurse racthed is the wolf and the patients are rabbits. those are the roles people take during these sessions. Reader #8-People act in certain ways when they are in groups for a variety of different reasons. Like in the therapy group they all were silent for a very long time. In the text it states “ And, she’d put all the acutes in a trance by sitting there in the silence for twenty minutes after the question, quiet as an electric alarm about to go off.” The group is probably acting this way because it is hard to talk about your feeling in front of people you’re are not familiar with. Especially when you have a mental illness like the people in the group. When the group finally cracked they all started talking about doing insane and illegal things. for example “I tried taking my sister to bed.”. That is something that you don’t normally tell people. But this probably helps them because the can get the bad things they did off their chest without getting in trouble. Reader #9-I think that the group sessions are very awkward. None of the patients enjoy participating, and no one is willing to even make eye contact with Nurse Ratched except for McMurphy. He is the only one who who will talk and share his opinion. Patients are taken back by this. The group focuses on the big nurse and McMurphy because they are interested that he is actually standing up to Big Nurse. Everyone is always silent, but Pete always complains about being tired. No one ever stands up for themselves because they don’t want to get in trouble and be sent for a lobotomy. Although, McMurphy is determined to get under Ratched’s skin without being sent to the disturbed ward. Reader #10-In the book so far, we learn a lot about how the patients can be and act, especially during their group therapy sessions. These sessions usually consist of silence but at the most recent therapy session, they started to complain and ask tons of questions such as "Why does the dorms have to be locked on the weekends?". For some odd reason the staff seems to just let them do so instead of stopping and controlling the patient's. This is a very significant part of the book because it is showing how the staff tries to keep them contin so they have no say in anything. That is why McMurphy finds this very strange considering the staff and nurse Ratched normally would have dealt with this situation by now.
15 Comments
Ryan W.
11/16/2015 11:39:19 am
I agree with reader #3. The group meetings are more destructive than constructive. The participants tend to be more abusive to the person they are talking about.
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Jacob kalasa
11/17/2015 10:21:05 am
I agree with reader #1. The group a axioms do not help anyone, they all stay quiet. The log book is their way to talk about stuff because they are afraid. They shouldn't I just be talking about what they have done wrong. They need to talk about the good they have done.
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Follmer
11/16/2015 03:23:25 pm
I agree with Reader #2 the group sessions seem very angry and useless. They don't seem to be helping anyone with their true problems. I think as the story progress we will see some major changes in the group and their behavior.
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Follmer
11/16/2015 03:26:46 pm
Reader #3 has some very good points to show how everyone handles the group sessions differently. Some choose to be silent and to listen to other. While others enjoy hearing themselves talk. I believe these key characteristics will be used later in the book to take the power away from the Big Nurse.
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Paige
11/16/2015 05:00:29 pm
I agree with reader #9, when they say that none of the patients like participating in the group sessions. I think their group sessions are pointless, because they are suppose to help the patients, yet they do the exact opposite. I think the purpose of a group session would be to let the patients talk about whatever they need to, or if they don't want to share than they are left alone. Aren't they suppose to help them, not hurt?
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shannon heraty
11/16/2015 07:36:59 pm
I agree with reader #1 that the group sessions are not helping the patients. None of the patients want to open up and talk about there problems to one another because they are afraid. If the patients did open up with their problems it could allow more people to connect with one another if they are sharing the same problem and have it be a more social enviorment.
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shannon heraty
11/16/2015 07:43:37 pm
I agree with reader number 3 that the group sessions are hard for the patients. Some patients are afraid when they do say something they get made fun of and it should be a place where no one gets critiziced. The sessions are not helping because when no one says anything their problems cant get fixed and their not getting the help they need.
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Hanna Smith
11/16/2015 08:23:04 pm
I agree with reader #1 because I don't think that the staff is really focused on getting them better 100% of the time. I think that sometimes they watch them get scared for their own entertainment. That may be cruel, but it's the obvious truth when the patients run to the log book to rat out their "friends" they're doing it so that the patients could stray away from alliances.
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Christian Pishotta
11/17/2015 08:24:28 am
I agree with reader #1 with how the patients don't come out more mentally stable from the meetings. When i first read that part, i wondered if this was actually an interrogation to one of the patients. Plus i also noticed that none of the patients seem to have improved from this meeting, when it was supposed to help them.
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Charli burgess
11/17/2015 10:12:12 am
I agree with reader #2 because I don't think anyone wants to have these group sessions. I think putting everyone together isn't helping anyone because it doesn't seem like they get along together. Although, I don't agree that it's going to effect Chief and McMurphy more than the others.
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charli burgess
11/17/2015 10:15:59 am
I agree with reader #1 because the staff doesn't seem like they really want to help them. I think they just look at their patients and how they act for their own amusement. I don't think the sessions are helping anyone.
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Megan Fata
11/17/2015 10:17:20 am
I agree with reader 1. The group sessions aren't working the way that they should.
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ryan franicevic
11/17/2015 10:28:40 am
I agree with reader 6. I feel they do a good job of describing the vibe during the group meetings . They also do a good job explaining how the patients feel and how they are scared to stand up for them selves against nurse Ratchet.
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Allie
11/17/2015 12:32:53 pm
I feel that the staff doesnt 100% wanna devote their time to make them better. I feel the group sessions are not working the way they should.
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Dorian
11/19/2015 10:16:17 am
I think Reader 1 summarized it the best. The group sessions are not helping the patients, rather, deteriorating them.
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