Nurse ratched - 1950s society / mental healthcare

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My niece is 20 years old, she doesn't know about the 1950s, or stories about nurse ratched or about mental healthcare and how it was done in the 1950s..

She showed me a picture of nurse ratched as she was in the movie..
One flew over the cuckoo's nest...
And asked me what is bad about her ?


I told her this...

First of all, what's wrong with nurse ratched, is rather well hidden in plain view..

She's all of everything unconstitutional, revolt causing and truly false that you can think of...
All meshed into one character.

First of all, Katie...
Think of this...
Imagine if you were held to the standards that nurse ratched visually portrays in the movie..

How would you like it ?
Would you truly comply with it ?
Would it truly mean anything to you, could you possibly identify with or connect to such a system and would you literally believe in the system and it's goals ?

And trying to measure up comes with its own problems...
Like Abuse.


Because the reality is Kate... The 1950s was there, it has come and gone...
And nobody has complied with that system.


Now imagine you're a patient there...
How would you like to be bossed around like a donkey...
Blindly Given medication in its infancy, and can't get any answers about it...
And never getting any help for your condition ?
Basically like you're in prison or something.

From what I understand mental health facilities back in those days were a lot worse than prison.

Lol yep

I've never read or seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest either, so I had no clue who or what nurse ratched is, so I just looked it up and found out *who* Nurse Ratched is.

But what I do know is that it's true mental health care was bad in those days. And it's still bad now. We may no longer have mental hospitals where people were locked up for things like "female hysteria", which could be anything from PMS to a woman actually refusing to obey her husband, and forced to lie naked on filthy beds where the staff would throw ice-cold water on them in an attempt to "shock" them out of their illness, but other than that that nothing has changed.

Believe me, I despise mental health professionals too. I never got the feeling that any of them really gave a damn about helping me or trying to understand me.

The worst thing about them is when I tell them how I really feel they try to convince me that's somehow NOT how I really feel.

My mom is getting a job as a social worker and she does that to me all the time.

I would never want a social worker they think they know what's best for you.
A lot of so called "Professionals" think because they have a degree they think they can tell you what to do.

Yes I've read some horrible things about what they did to patients years ago even people who were a little eccentric.

And ...What , you seriously think basic parameters they treat .psychiatric patients has changed alot since then.And even what constitutes a psychiatric condition versus a organic one ......

AWe ...... that is soo cute ... some people will get the sarcasm in this post , some maynot.?
Please understand . This is meant as sarcasm. Having been on both sides of professional medical treatment plans . Is where this sarcasm comes from.

404 Error: Inspirational quote not found* ( also written in the same spirit)

I'm glad that this is 2019 and not 1959. I'd hate to be in that type of setting with a person like that controlling my every move and emotion.

I spent at least half of my life in a setting where many people tried to control my every move and emotion.

And when I was in a lot a physical pain, either from the side effects of their medication or because I had accidentally injured myself, they treated me like some kind of nuisance.

Please beware currently there are some hospitals in the United State , have read and asked to write congress .
By Autism group in that state . To oppose using . Electro Convulsive Shock therapy on Autistics , that are deemed hard to control , within the confines of their hospital. Against their best interests in opinion of outside parties ..

When you are signed into a hospital . The people whom run that facility are empowered to make decisions for you . If you are lucky enough to be able to be able to convey . To intial admitting people and can provide reasonable excuse . To get yourself into enough of a concious position .If not already drugged outta your mind ,To sign yourself out , unless you are under care of of state assigned conservator. . Then your opinion , is totally invalidated .
Welcome to the 1950s again .. oopps , i mean 2019 .

More than once been a facility breifly to get seriously needed help .
Ended up telling the P-doc that helped me get in . That would have been better off living behind a dumpster. Within last 5 years .

That rings a bell for me, too.
My mother did it all the time, likely making me more and more crazy.

I have met some mental health professionals who turned out really helpful, on the other hand.