In Session with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

Involuntary commitment – a legal intervention by which a judge, or someone acting in a judicial capacity, may order that a person with symptoms of a serious mental disorder, and meeting other specified criteria be admitted to a psychiatric facility

Moral treatment – a therapeutic approach that emphasized character and spiritual development, and called for kindness on the part of all who came in contact with the patient

Acute hospitalization – short-term hospital stay focused on stabilization

Deinstitutionalization – a government policy focused on shifting mental health patients out of state-run psychiatric hospitals into federally funded community mental health centers

Community mental health centers – locally-based centers offering outpatient mental health services, often offer free or sliding-scale care

Least restrictive environment – standard of providing patients with psychiatric treatment which is least restrictive while still encouraging recovery and promoting independence

Informed consent – a legal and ethical term defined as the process of a client agreeing to a proposed intervention after understanding of the relevant facts, risks and benefits, and available alternatives involved

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – psychiatric treatment in which small electrical currents are passed through the brain to induce small seizures with the goal of causing changes to brain chemistry than can alleviate symptoms of certain mental conditions

Malingering – exaggerating or faking illness to achieve an external reward or escape an undesired outcome (e.g., faking an illness to get out of work)

Secondary gain – any positive advantage that accompanies physical or psychological symptoms

Oppositional defiant disorder – a diagnosis in a child characterized by defiant and disobedient behavior to authority figures