Thursday, December 2, 2010
Who is really insane?
Today in class part of the discussion centered on if we believed the main character had a mental defect and if so what type of issue did he have. In addition to that a couple of days ago we discussed various definitions of insanity. However I do not believe the Chief Bromden is actually insane by any of the definitions we covered. I would consider the Mrs. Ratched more insane then Chief Bromden due to he inhumane treatment of mentally ill patients. In order to be that cruel to people one must be insane. However this type of treatment was common at the time, and by this logic would that not make anyone who worked in a mental hospital insane for treating their patients this way? This develops the even more troubling question centered around the fact that society accepted this treatment as normal and that would imply that society is insane for allowing these people to be treated this way. So who is actually the insane ones in this picture the ones who are locked away and receive abuse because they differ from society or the society that allows these poor people to go through the abuse and torture? Perhaps people who function in society should be considered the insane ones rather then those who do not function in society.
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Although I agree that the people mistreating "insane" people are often not entirely sane themselves, I disagree with your assessment of Chief Bromden. I see something sort of insane in his ability to pretend to be deaf and mute for years. Though this is certainly impressive and may even be intelligent and beneficial to him, I think that only someone at least slightly insane could force themselves to stay deaf and mute for such an enormous amount of time. Perhaps this means that everyone is at least a little insane.
ReplyDeleteKyle, I agree with you that society's inhumane treatments of the mentally ill seemed insane. Although not actually psychopathic, it seems shocking that health experts of the mid 20th century believed that lobotomy and other odd treatments were effective. However, I disagree with you about Chief Bromden, and I think he must be insane due to his deaf and mute act and his childish yet intelligent personality.
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