EVALUATION OF ASYLUMS ACCORDING TO ERVING GOFFMAN
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie that directed by Milos Forman in 1975. Film was adapted to cinema from namesake book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest mentioned Randle McMurphy’s story, he was a culprit but he take to asylum or that is to say, psychiatric hospital so movie mentioned asylums life and realities. I use asylum instead of a psychiatric hospital because this essay will be evaluated of movie and asylums according to Erving Goffman’s study Asylums and his interactionism perspective.
Firstly, explaining these terms will help for understanding examples. Asylums are total institutions that create mental illness, actually, it fictionalizes mental illness as like different ego and concomitantly with it, comprise between of ill and healthy people according to Erving Goffman. Also when examining interactionism theory of Goffman, people who available continuously in social interaction for instance teachers, students or parents have a lot of different identity except them ego. Different identities create different roles and people act upon with these roles, they return the self only when are lonely. İnteractionism in other saying people who stay in social interaction, behave theatrically and life is like a stage with roles.
Examples of films can explain these theories but begin with telling of asylums is better before exemplifying. Asylums are total institutions as mentioned above and these institutions accompany some standard situations like standardization, same treatments or same clothes. For example, all mental patient use medication same hours in the movie, they take medication together with supervision so this situation creates a standardization. Another example for standardization, people wear similar clothes and clothes generally white and its hues. People resemble each other despite having different mental problems. Also, same solution technics use for solving problems like electroshock in asylums. Therefore all examples show creating standardization from asylums so people have built different ego with conditions of asylums in mind.
İnteractionism hereinbefore created roles pursuant to the identity of people in social life so if we evaluate mental patients in the movie, they act upon rules in asylums. They have some roles in there for instance, attending therapies but they don’t prefer speaking because they learn or know responses and they don’t have a different topic they generally discuss the same thing. People live with same rules and these rules never change. For example, McMurphy wanted a match in movie and nurse said not accepting this idea from other people actually, this is the motivated situation after this request was voted down and nobody accepts it. This is because people accept rules and live by them, asylums engrain in these rules and people nearly forget own prefers, claims or ideas.
Another important point about asylums, these institutions create mental illness and fictionalize like a new identity on people mind. Most people in the movie, staying in asylums voluntarily because they act upon mental illness identity and they accept it and they don’t prefer another identity. For example, McMurphy escape from the asylum and he took away some friends together, they fish together and McMurphy said friends ‘you are not mad anymore, you are fisher’. After this sentence people behaved like a fisher and they seem more relax and compatible because they assume a new identity and they act upon it. Also, people in asylums, unfortunately, forget real life or they form the fear of real life because of their problems that in life more dangerous for them. For examples Bill who is a character a movie, staying voluntarily because he used to act upon mental illness roles and he was scared his mother and life so he preferred to stay in the asylum.
Finally, Erving Goffman’s study asylum and his theory of interactionism evaluated with examples from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Examples show asylums is total institutions and they created some perceptions and identities with rules so mental illness comprises of asylums. Mental illness fictionalizes like a new ego by asylums and also, standardization is the big problem in asylums. Interactionism normally people have some roles except self-identity; these roles consist of identity’s social interaction and people act upon roles that these identities. Interactionism in terms of asylums, people act upon some roles or rules that created from asylums and so they accept mental illness and asylums built different ego on people mind. Also, unfortunately, asylums create a differentiation as healthy and ill people.
