An exceptionally tall Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character from Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he is also a victim of society's suffocation, which worsens Bromden's condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that causes severe delusions and hallucinations, among other less serious symptoms. Thanks to the love and compassion that Bromden inmate Randle Patrick McMurphy gives to Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward in which he is held. The context of Chief Bromden's life makes him a likely target for mental illness. The conflict that the chief's father faced also had a negative impact on him. His father was Chief Tee Ah Millatoona of the Umpqua Tribe and his mother was a white woman. The chief's father took his mother's surname: "His name is Bromden." He took his name” (214). This suggests her dominance in the relationship, but it is clear that her extreme belittling had negative psychological effects: “It wasn't just her who made him small. Everyone worked on him because he was big, he didn't want to give in and did what he wanted... He fought for a long time until my mother made him too small to fight and he gave up" (220). Just like his father, Chief was a great man crushed by the pressures of society. Chief grew up living a normal life, free of schizophrenia, in the Columbia River Gorge, in an Umpqua village run by his father schizophrenia emerged when government officials inspected his vi...... middle of paper ...... Personal Attitudes, Personal Needs: A Survey of Schizophrenia by the National Alliance on Schizophrenia. mental illness, nd Web. April 28, 2014. Goodfriend, Wind. “Psychiatric hospitals in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” Psychology Today, May 22, 2012. Web. . mental and behavioral disorders: clinical descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1992. Print. “NAMI – The National Alliance on Mental Illness.” NAMI. National Alliance on Mental Illness, nd Web. May 1, 2014. “Interventions for schizophrenia.” Interventions for schizophrenia. News Medical, September 29, 2009. Web. May 1, 2014. “Schizophrenia.” NIMH RSS. US Department of Health and Human Services., nd Web. April 28, 2014. “Schizophrenia: treatment and care.” » WebMD. WebMD and Web. April 30. 2014.