The Mind Space

The Mind Space

The mind is a complex universe within us, something that only we can understand, from ever fragment, every core, the thoughts that we have, the inner voice that helps us create the decisions that we make, but if we’re fortunate enough to find our person to understand, we’re usually left alone to deal with our mind. What makes the mind different from others? How is handling your mind and your perception of the world different from everyone else? A good example of this would be this quote, “There’s a shipment of frozen parts come in downstairs– hearts and kidneys and brain the like. I can hear them rumble into cold storage down the coal chute. A guy sitting in the room someplace I can’t see is talking about a guy up on Disturbed killing himself. Old Rawler. Cut both nuts off and bled to death, sitting right on the can in the latrine, half a dozen people in there with him didn’t know it till he fell off to the floor, dead.” — In the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, main character Chief Bromden is often someone who is stuck in his thoughts. These thoughts can be very disturbing or very intriguing depending how you look at it. The quote above is an example of his mindset, his mind is so spiral, he thinks of gruesome things, he even thinks of the uncomfortable, but that is what makes the mind– a mind. Throughout the book Bromden’s thoughts deepen and switch between his past and his present, sometimes while reading, the reader’s mind can become fogged as if the fog machine is present in their head, like Bromden’s. Meaning that, the reader becomes confused, intrigued, and their thoughts become more intune with the book. Thinking like Bromden in a way. As for me, reading this book has definitely opened my eyes to how people in Asylum’s could be. Of course with previous knowledge, I already knew a lot, but you never can see the inside of a patient’s mind. You never can have the same experience as them– until you’re them. While reading this book my thoughts varied back and forth, even though Bromden’s thoughts were what people would say were weird, I couldn’t help but relate to him. My mind runs a thousand miles per hour, endless thoughts trembling throughout my mind, thoughts that I wish I didn’t have. These would be called intrusive thoughts, where you think about things that are depicted as “abnormal” for example– a constant thought I used to have that I hated was hurting animals. Of course I would never do such, I love animals, so why was this thought in my brain? For nights I stressed myself out about this. The more I dug that shovel deep into that one thought, the more that thought exploded into gruesome thoughts that transpired into something worse. I would overthink so much about this that my head would start to burn from stress. While this turned into an everyday occurrence for years, I felt at a disadvantage. I didn’t know what to do. Back to the book, there isn’t really anything for the patients to do. Like Bromden, he can’t do anything but think. I feel like me and many others, when it comes to delusion, overthinking, intrusive thoughts, just for saying the wrong thing to someone you can be put inside of a Mental Asylum. Relating to the book, for me, it still confuses me as to why Bromden was in there in the first place. This makes me think about when I was almost taken to an Asylum, all because I said an intrusive thought that bothered me. Feeding into your delusions can be dangerous; it’s like liking a boy but he doesn’t like you back, but you believe that he’ll like you back one day so you sit and just hold onto the possibility of him liking you. You change his contact in your phone to something romantic, you daydream while looking at his pictures, then you try again and ask him out and you’re surprised when he denies you. Being delusional can get your heart broken, can mess up your brain, it can create issues for you that you created for yourself. With Bromden, his thoughts are all over the place which confuses the reader. Even me, I was confused, and offended by his constant comments about Black people. The frequent use of “negro”. But all in all, I relate to Bromden, his mind just runs and runs and never stops, and so does mine, and I wish that it wasn’t like that.