a Chris Jaymes place

The Institutionalized Dissemination of the Individual 

By Christopher Jaymes 

Using the films One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Dead Poet’s Society to dissect the 

layered dynamics between the Institution and the Individual, intended for The New Yorker 

Stillness in nature is disrupted by the industrialized man as an automobile passes through a 

serene mountain setting in the opening frame of Milos Forman’s Academy Award winning 

interpretation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, based on the novel by Ken Kesey.  

Distractions in nature sporadically occur throughout Peter Weir’s Academy Award winning feature 

film, Dead Poet’s Society, however the opening scene establishes young boys being 

photographed to blend into a classically painted mural residing upon the wall of an upper class 

prep school.  The children are almost camouflaged as a part of the painting as they prepare for 

the morning ritual which will set the new school year into motion.   Two images; the disruption of 

something structurally sound, nature, by an opposing force, man; and the inherent molding that 

engulfs the unsuspecting youth to follow in the footsteps of conformist tradition.  Cuckoo’s Nest 

and Dead Poet’s Society explore the reactionary affects carried out by the institution, be it a 

mental hospital or a prep school, as it is forced to confront a disruption brought forth by an 

individual in opposition with the standards set forth and the methods used to voraciously 

disempower the nonconformist.  Without proper guidance and delicate force, the expansion of the 

conformist will stimulate the abolition of the individual and the extinction of civil liberty as a whole. 

Dead Poet’s Society is about a man returning to his prep school to replace a retired English 

teacher.  His efforts to instill a newfound awareness in his students, enforcing the need to look 

past the text and awaken the individual within, are in direct opposition with the standards and 

mores of the traditionally structured institution.  The boys come together inspired by Mr. Keating 

to meet after hours in a nearby cave, breaking out of the oppressive all-male academy to find 

liberation within the writings of Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and a myriad of Romantic 

poets, forming what they call the Dead Poet’s Society.   This sets a series of individual journeys in 

motion where each of the boys are forced to approach and confront various issues surrounding 

the life of an evolving adolescent yearning to shed the suit of the child and stand forth with the 

posture of a free-thinking independent man.  The pseudo-liberation experienced by the boys is 

accompanied by the reciprocal desire of a stubborn institution to retain it’s stature. 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the story of a criminal feigning insanity to avoid serving a 

prison sentence.  Instead, he enters an all-male state mental institution and struggles to elude the 

bureaucratically-imposed dehumanization tactics presented.   MacMurphy, the felon, is 

consistently emasculated by the informally butch head nurse, Nurse Ratched, as he persistently 

attempts to instill a confidence and camaraderie amongst the somewhat feminized male inmates, 

most of whom are there based on issues stemmed from some emasculating female once 

prominent in their lives.  Throughout his stay, we witness the extremist tactics induced by the 

institution in order to disempower the nonconformist. 

In both circumstances we have a group of individuals forced to adhere to the strict demands 

imposed upon them by the institution, regardless of personal desire.  As MacMurphy enters his 

newfound doctor’s office he comments upon a photograph portraying the smiling doctor holding 

up a thirty-something pound fish, the doctor exclaims how it took him a whole day to get it under 

control and how reeling it in took every last bit of energy he had.  This image perfectly mirrors the 

power of the institution over the individual.  Only occasionally does the fish actually free itself from 

the hook, and even when it succeeds, the scar exists eternally.  MacMurphy’s journey will 

replicate that of the hooked fish en route to it’s imminent demise.  Upon entering the facility, in 

Poet’s Society the prep school, in Cuckoo’s Nest, the asylum, the individual’s freedom is 

immediately forfeited; freedom summarized as the power to ask, speak or think without the 

hindrance or restraint of another force.  The institution, in both cases, is empowered with the 

authority to grant or remove the possession of free will to the individual; to dictate the acceptable 

and allowable actions the individual may exercise.  This inhibition of free will stimulates a 

disruption amongst the newcomer, assuming the individual has not been previously stripped of 

the intrinsic desires inherent to all humans, resulting in a power struggle between the newfound 

slave and his keeper.  In both settings, the individual interprets the situation as the stripping of 

individual freedom by an external power.   

Levels of power can be remedially separated into a few categories: external power being the 

power outside of the walls you are bound by, including universal, natural, technological and 

transportation based powers, society, government and law; internal powers could be those within 

the environment you most inhabit, the home, the workplace, school, clubs, prison, family, sports, 

committees; individual power can be broken down further to mental, emotional and physical 

levels of control.  However, regardless what level of power or freedom the individual is faced with, 

it cannot function outside of the arena summarized by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.  The shadows 

projected upon the wall by the Ruler of the Cave throughout the lifespan of the individual, is the 

sum total of the available vocabulary of which the individual’s perspective of freedom and power 

is based.  The laws of relativity must be reinterpreted and applied in each moment of one’s 

existence and reapplied to each fragment of thought, feeling and breath to properly comprehend 

the equation of moment-to-moment perception evolution.   One man’s freedom is another man’s 

prison.  One woman’s power is another woman’s weakness.  A teacher finds freedom hiding 

behind the thoughtlessness of tradition and preordained structure.  Certain individuals classified 

as mental patients might find empowerment by disassociating themselves from the perils and 

responsibilities of the outside world, associating the gates of the institution as protection, while 

finding liberation within the ingested chemicals delivered daily to quiet the controlling factors of 

the mischievous clamoring from within the cavity of the person.  While a paraplegic may find 

freedom floating in a pool with high salinity where for a short moment he experiences a lift within 

the constraints of physical motion.  All of whom would define power as possessing the authority to 

practice these freedoms.  Freedom and power are relative, and when this relativity is infringed 

upon, by either the individual or the institution, conflict is unavoidable as the institution must rise 

to diminish the individual and more often then not, the individual will not prevail.  

The Welton Preparatory Academy in Dead Poet’s Society is based on tradition and conformation, 

structured to function as a production-assembly line in a factory molding middle to upper-class 

young men to suit the needs of a bureaucratically organized society.  Rewards are based on the 

individual’s capacity to excel within the practices of mimicry and memorization.  The individual is 

programmed with the mindset that the grade is the resulting success, instead of the functional 

and thoughtful mind.  The institution must contain this order to sustain it’s power.  Anything 

outside of the prescribed information becomes threatening to the standards of the comprised 

structure, therefore to contain the power of ‘tradition’ one must monitor the menu of information 

that the mind is allowed to ingest.  Hence, the liberty to evaluate media from the outside world is 

stripped from the students as a precautionary tactic to avoid the entrance of a potentially 

contradictory mindset within the institution.  This runs concurrent with the practices of the mental 

ward under Nurse Ratched’s leadership when the patients request additional television liberties to 

view the World Series.  In both cases, censorship is practiced in the same manner that Plato’s 

Cave Ruler kept the enchained slaves captive to avoid rebellion.  The projection of shadows in 

Plato’s Cave, Welton’s ‘light of knowledge’ and the ideology of the mental hospital all comprise 

the single and solitary dictating voice that the enslaved are empowered to embrace.  This is the 

necessary guideline for a structure to retain authority, be it a government, a hospital or a parent, it 

all amounts to the same statement…  

WE will give you the knowledge to focus upon.  Your line of sight will remain at that focus and it 

will not shift away.  Your heads will rest in chains facing the direction of the shadows that I will 

cast. 

Until all chains are diminished, the individual can technically be defined as an enslaved being; to 

the universe, to nature, to society, to career, to family, to friends, to self and finally, to science 

which comprises the structure of the physical self.  Since no qualifying state exists outside of 

death where the individual functions on a truly independent basis, it must be assumed that we are 

all enslaved in some manner and only illusory-based liberation from relativity is actually plausible. 

The students of the all-male Welton Academy represent the slaves of a society in every form, 

from the conservative uniforms, to the ritualistic chants and the manner they are whipped when 

their conduct is inappropriate.  The institution has been hired to mold the individual’s thought 

process in preparation for conformist society by the once removed parental figures that have 

placed them here.  In essence, the child lives a dualistic existence as the genetic mirror of the 

parent, as well as, slave to the parental perspective, as the child is captive to the sole subjective 

voice of the parent, acquiring the absolute vocabulary of all beliefs, ethics, misperceptions, 

weaknesses and strengths at a cellular level.  The student is now slave to the parent and the 

teacher.  The concept of individualistic thought is foreign and could only exist in flailing minutia 

unless introduced by an outside voice.  The voice of rebellion or opposition will always possess a 

magnetic and appealing demeanor, as by nature, power fearless of confronting the omnipotent 

looming structure represents survival, the driving inherent force engrained into the subconscious 

intention of man’s every waking breath.   This voice of rebellion may be fearless, selfish, or 

absolutely ignorant, regardless of the source, it’s presence will inevitably stimulate an awareness 

within the enslaved while forcing the institution to protect itself. 

Within our two films we are presented with two such voices, stimulating a fearful and foreign hope 

within the enslaved group of males.  Mr. Keatings, a product of the institution, has returned in a 

position of power as a professor to fulfill an agenda that was lacking from his perspective, to 

stimulate the ability of the individual to evolve as a ‘free thinker’.  From his perspective, his 

intentions are pure and selfless, however, being a Welton graduate, Keatings must understand at 

some level that his tactics would not be welcomed.  His purpose in one sense must be to 

overcome the power that he could not confront as a child, and in another sense, to assist the 

students in escaping from a Cave that once held him prisoner.  Since one can only truly 

comprehend the Cave that has engulfed him throughout his existence, you must assume that the 

quotes he brings forth, and the teachings he presents are those most significant to his own 

survival.   

 “…most men live their lives in quiet desperation” –Professor Keatings 

He is speaking about himself and the existential conflicts that he has encountered and imposing 

his personal objectives upon the students, therefore, you must assume that regardless of 

presentation, or lack of self awareness, his mission is a selfish mission. 

Randall Patrick MacMurphy is a sexist, racist, forceful convict, convicted of battery and charged 

with statutory rape.  He enters the asylum under the assumption that it will remove him from his 

exhausting work detail and be a relaxing environment to carry out his sentence.  MacMurphy’s 

intentions are purely selfish and the awakenings that occur for the surrounding patients tend to be 

more of a residual effect than a specific intention.  His nature to create a team of supporters 

reflects the nature of a savvy politician, as he understands that masculine camaraderie is 

necessary to overthrow a leader.  Therefore, he constantly builds the confidence of the inmates, 

attempting to convince them that their capacity is far beyond what the hospital might imply.   

In both scenarios, you have two selfish liberators influencing extremely permeable minds, some 

of which are incapable of handling this type of transition at all, none of whom are capable of 

handling it alone.  Throughout Dead Poet’s Society, recurring images of birds flocking are 

juxtaposed with the grouping of students, implying the inherent nature of the individual to conform 

to a societal structure, as is common throughout the nature of man and society.  The individual 

constantly yearns for liberation, yearns for independence, yearns for power, yet fears that this 

may lead to his potential demise, hence, the structure of a grounded team provides the false 

courage and necessary sustenance for the embark towards relative liberation.  Isolation is 

generally an illusion of perception, as very seldom are we actually alone; however, a common 

sensation of isolation is prevalent within most humans, though technically inaccurate.  We feel 

much more alone than we actually are.  This insinuates the condensation of time within thought 

sensation, allowing extensive processes to occur within our conceptual thought-feeling 

awareness than comprehensible on a physical external basis.  The result of feeling isolated and 

alone generally equates to a sense of helplessness against the whole.  Another conceptual 

misinterpretation possessed by the individual is that the ‘whole’ is something that exists outside of 

you, as something others experience as an internal sensation; being part of whole.  However, the 

idea of being part of a whole may allude the individual to embrace the whole under the 

assumption that it will mask or eradicate the eternal isolation the individual believes to be 

engulfed within.  As is true in nature, is true in society, people crave to be a part of something 

larger than they can be alone.  Generally, there is a desire to be led or guided to this state of 

participation, which then can only be sustained by the individual if the foundation of the whole is 

intact; the foundation can only remain intact with proper guidance from the leader.  As the boys 

assemble to form the Dead Poet’s Society, each of the boys pressure one another to participate, 

to embrace the group, to conform to the new standards and principles.  In essence, the individual 

has no alternative but to exchange one cave for another. 

In the Cave of Welton, the ‘Light of Knowledge’ is offered; basically. a piddly candle for a crap 

tradition.  In the Dead Poet’s Cave, we function solely by flashlights which could be interpreted as 

false light.  Welton is based on structure and tradition, while the Dead Poet’s are based on 

Romantic thought and passionate innovation.  Welton consists of conservative elderly uniforms, 

while the Poet’s dress in hooded robes and mimic the symbols of hedonism practiced by their 

elders, smoking pipes and cigars.  They attain validation from one another by a mutual 

conformation towards the notion of becoming a ‘free thinker’.  This becomes their identity, existing 

as an underlying hopeful force that they are worthy of receiving a life vibrating on a level higher 

than the surrounding others.  They want something more.  They are hopeful of receiving liberation 

from the repressed existence they have lived until now, or maybe not.  Maybe they are infected 

with the inherent fear of missing out on something else.  Something different that may be better.  

In either scenario, they reach out to find some validation that they are worthy of being alive.  Each 

of the individuals alone, have only their ego to protect, to sustain, to gratify and validate.  They 

interpret the prison surrounding them from within the helplessness of their age and circumstance.  

Their reality cannot see outside of now, as this is the whole, the end, the everything… being 

stretched and pulled from all sides, their spirit struggles to find ground.  Time does not exist, there 

is only now and now they are trapped within the Cave dictated by someone outside of 

themselves.  The ego is blinded and is seemingly dead as it searches to find identity.  For now, 

belonging to the whole becomes their identity, however identity is false and flailing, as permanent 

as the projected shadows upon the wall in Plato’s Cave.  Both, the ideologies of Welton, and 

those of the Dead Poet’s, are simple ideas representing two separate conceptual notions of 

relative freedom; however, you must first break out of one Cave in order to properly embrace 

another.  Though you must not confuse moving from one cave to another as the creation of a 

greater, more liberated being necessarily.  Individual evolution of perspective must occur and 

awareness of both realities, and your assumed identity within both of these realities is necessary 

for any honest and organic liberation to occur. 

Within both films, we are presented with a varied demographic of individuals, most of whom 

possess developmentally vulnerable minds, susceptible to conformity while desperately yearning 

to be led.  Both of our leaders embrace their subjects with tactics of confidence, building 

masculinity while continuously exhibiting variable practices of questioning authority.  Keatings 

presentation is deceptively gentle and feminine while his tactics could be viewed as somewhat 

extremist against the tradition of the institution, as he influences the students to eradicate the 

introductory section within their text books, which summarizes methodical practices of measuring 

the effectiveness of poetry and exclaiming- 

  “… THIS IS A WAR.  … YOU WILL LEARN TO THINK FOR YOURSELVES AGAIN.” 

The students embrace their liberator with varying levels of maturity. The stimulus to free one’s 

self reverberates throughout the previously oppressed mannerisms, shifting their somewhat 

premature foundation.  At this point in one’s existence, confusion is inexorable as the body no 

longer contains a child, however the mind has not yet arrived with the perception of a man.  

Adolescence is the Age of the In Between where the parented male defies the parental figures 

completely and disconnects, or accepts the role of the eternal child-feigning-adult, the latter of 

which summarizes the characters filling the asylum who could no longer successfully sustain the 

feigned existence.  In either case, the individual journey is subjective to each of the participants 

based on the present state and primary focus of ego-awareness.  A priority for one individual may 

be to defy the father, while another’s is to gain validation from a woman other than mother, much 

as the Knox character achieves with Chris, the angelic public school girl from the next town over.  

Knox defies the demands of the institution, continuously placing himself at risk by secretly leaving 

campus, while also placing himself in a position open to physical harm by Chris’ hyper-masculine 

jock boyfriend.  The voice of the liberator combined with the foundation of the team creates the 

necessary support for Knox to embrace the vulnerability and courage necessary to confront his 

boyish perception of love.  This drives the individual out of the parentally oppressive Cave of 

youth into the vulnerable arena of pseudo-adulthood, yearning to confirm his worthiness and fulfill 

the illusion that he, as an independent being can be viewed as something worthy, good and 

acceptable from an object outside of himself that he categorizes and identifies as premium or 

pristine.  The result will be used to falsely define his self-worthiness.  The Billy character from 

Cuckoo’s Nest and the Neil character from Poet’s Society are prematurely led to embrace the 

notion of self-evolution and liberation leading to their unnecessary suicide and imminent demise. 

Neil cannot carry this newfound liberation without the support of the team.  As he is confronted 

with the demands of his father, he crumbles and surrenders to the concept of non-existence.   To 

be taken from the team, to live under the ruling of a dictator, he would rather die.  He imposes a 

crown of thorns upon himself, and accepts his self-determined fate over living a life within the 

confines of his father’s Cave.  This best exemplifies the irresponsibility of our featured liberators 

to properly guide the individuals throughout their simulated transformation.  Premature rebellion 

to the institution of one’s self is as debilitating as if it were against a structured society.   

As vehemently as the foundation of the self retaliated over Billy and Neil, the retaliation of the 

institution will retaliate with redoubtable force and most definitely slaughter the individual.  The 

Ruler of the Cave must eradicate the external noise and repress the prisoner, returning the 

perspective to his perspective and the reality to his reality.  Nurse Ratched’s capacity to quickly 

alter the rules with MacMurphy’s request to watch the World Series.  Initially, she suggests they 

put it to a vote however as MacMurphy wins she alters the rules and retains control of her 

domain.  As Billy’s confidence expands from spending the night with the hooker, his stuttering 

dissipates and a masculine presence arises within his demeanor.  Nurse Ratched quickly 

stimulates his primary fear by threatening to tell his mother about the hooker.  Emasculated  

completely, he enters a frenzied state and cuts his throat.  Ratched’s intentions were to diminish 

Billy and regain control of the ward, regardless of the cost.  MacMurphy dutifully attacks her, 

choking her to death, were it not for the guards yanking him away.  He is promptly taken to the 

Disturbed Ward where a lobotomy eradicates his Voice eternally.  The existence of the institution 

requires the oppression of the Voice of the individual.  No Voice, no opinion, no power… no you.  

Defiance to conform results in the forceful stripping of the individual.  If you will not conform, you 

will not exist.    

One Cave to the next, one identity to another, man moves through his existence ultimately 

confused and yearning for confirmation of a place, a structure, or some form of validating 

foundation to coexist with.  A Cave to Rule or a Cave to inhabit as one of the enslaved.  In 

essence, the metaphor of the Cave is simply explained as the boundaries of the individual’s 

awareness.  The most significant Cave is the universe of the individual, trapped within the 

geography of the Earth, within a physically composed unconsciously functioning structure, within 

an instable thought process incapable of comprehending it’s own self-absorbed existence.  The 

Cave of breathing in and out with a false concept of control and the inherent need to find 

something absolute to ground your existence.  The Cave of the essence of life outside of an 

incomprehensible death granting you the sole power of surrender.  The victims in our stories were 

incapable of the surrender necessary to sustain the existence of the Self, and exchanged their 

omnipotent helplessness for the esoteric escape from the Cave of the breathing individual, as the 

necessary path to individual liberation.   This theme runs throughout both narratives from the 

night-visiting hooker in the asylum singing Row Your Boat… 

  – “…Life is but a dream.” 

…to Keating presenting the images on the wall reflecting the likeness of the now deceased 

students from years prior.  Upon their first interaction, he immediately attempts to ingrain the 

concept of death into the minds of the boys.  A tactic that will only momentarily flutter through the 

conceptual forefront of the mind’s thought process, as the incomprehensible can never satiate the 

awareness in a grounded or absolute form.  As the prisoners in Plato’s Cave cannot comprehend 

the external light, or the reality existing outside the walls of the surrounding Cave, we, as humans 

cannot comprehend the concept of death, as nonexistence burns our eyes as intensely as the 

sun tears through the unlearned cornea of the Cave dwelling slave.  In essence, the life engulfing 

us, the oxygen satiating us, and the body containing us is the Cave we are entrapped within and 

that is all we can comprehend.  This Cave is the only Cave within the essence of man that is 

absolute.  In Poet’s Society, Neil willingly steps out of this Cave while Keatings is still enslaved.  

In Cuckoo’s Nest, Billy Bibbit willingly exits, while Mac is unwillingly taken by the institution, and in 

Plato’s Cave, the enlightened one unwillingly exits at the hand of the prisoners that he attempts to 

awaken.  Keating says early on… 

“… we are but food for worms, boys.” 

And this is what we can conceive of death.  Our remains will be ingested and decomposed by 

creeping, burrowing blind hermaphrodite invertebrates with multiple hearts living below the 

shadows, engulfed in absolute darkness.  In the end, even they prevail over the individual. 

Hierarchy is the Natural Law.  The weak are the Kings of the weaker and the weaker are the 

Princes to the weakest. Without delicate guidance, the Institution will destroy the individual and 

the individual will destroy the Self and inevitably, the worms will prevail. 

Without reminding the uprising generations that the constancy of curiosity is necessary, the 

constancy of thoughtful outrage is necessary liberty is endangered.  If the individual is not 

specifically trained to ask the questions, he or she will not miraculously know that it is appropriate 

and necessary to do so.  Thoughtlessness allowed civility to dissipate from our society and 

without it the empowerment of the institution will prevail.  Without proper guidance, one cannot be 

assumed or expected to comprehend Western enlightenment and civil liberties, or to intrinsically 

advance such ideologies. These concepts are not passed psychically or virally.  They are 

conveyed through the institution.  They are passed from the people.  Conspiracy did not remove 

civility from our capitalist society, laziness did and it’s demise is aggressively nearing.  Without  

re-learning and re-educating our society to eradicate the fear of disrupting our leaders, and 

regaining our demands for answers to the questions based on logic and factual objectivity, 

without allowing thoughtful outrage to surface out of responsibility to the sanctitude of ethical 

human consciousness, the desire to sustain a non-oppressive society, and the liberty of the 

individual, without reimplementation of these concepts, this ideology will find itself extinct.  The 

question needing to be taught is the simple inquiry and the asking of the self “what am I 

responsible for?” instead of looking to others waiting for them to dictate what we should do.  

Otherwise we remain living amongst the shadows, much like the shrewd and knavish Puck, the 

ferry in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream.  At the end of the play he makes a speech explaining his 

actions and trivializing the play itself. 

“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but 

slumb’red here, While these visions did appear.”  

This line essentially includes the audience as participants within the play itself, comparing them to 

the Athenian lovers who within the play did also awaken from the absurd happenings of the fairy 

world as if it were a dream.  He speaks in double meanings, encouraging the ignorant to remain 

enjoyably ignorant while the educated members of the elite may comprehend the larger 

statement.  If you misunderstand or disagree, go back to sleep, he promotes, it’s all a dream.  

The irresponsibility of allowing the ignorant to remain sleeping is the initial building blocks for the 

dissemination of liberty and the potential beginnings of an oppressive and segregated existence.  

Even through the selfish perspective of a felon, MacMurphy’s sacrifice alongside his presentation 

of individuality does successfully restore Chief’s self-confidence, helping regain his former 

stature, both physically and symbolically, and as an individual, he is able to escape the ward and 

face the outside world as a liberated man, as the final image of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 

is Chief, returning to his Native American Indian roots, the institution of Nature, leaving the 

technology and conformity of the white man behind, while also reminding us how quickly and 

effortlessly a population can disappear into extinction as the dream comes to an end, and reality 

returns, and this becomes nothing more than a distant and fleeting memory… existence.