well... (Off-Topic)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Friday, December 09, 2022, 05:05 (714 days ago) @ Cody Miller

You always have interesting things to say, Cody, and I know you do creative work, which is why this thread is so disappointing to me. Of course individual works of art can change the world--it's just astounding to me that you don't think so. I'll give one example in your domain. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest changed the world. Without that movie, for better or worse, it would be much easier to institutionalize the mentally ill today.

Great Example, because the book was published at the height of the anti-psychiatry movement. It didn't lead the way, it rode the coat tails of philosophers like Szasz and Foucault. By the time the book was published these ideas had already entered the cultural sphere. The book didn't stop lobotomies: the development of antidepressant and antipsychotic medications did.

By the time the film was released, what you saw on screen was already obsolete. If anything this newfound "compassion" made it easier to deflect the problem of the mentally ill. Oh, look, we don't put them in loony bins anymore. We aren't barbaric. The illusion of care, meanwhile the mentally ill don't get the help they need even today. It has the opposite effect intended, since they can point and say see? We aren't like that anymore!

The book was pretty much straight reportage based on Kesey’s experiences. I know it well because I taught both the book and the film for years. You seem to be saying the movie did not change the world (because the world had already changed). At the same time, you echo several points from this article (almost verbatim), The film that changed psychiatry forever, which I think supports what I said well. Though I still love the film, I do think now it probably did more harm than good.

Talk about harm, though. Foucault… [shudders in disgust]