Institutionellt stigma

Populärkultur och psykiatrisk heldygnsvård

Abstract

This article analyses how psychiatry as an institution carries a stigma, partly constructed through portrayals of psychiatry in popular culture. A central point of analysis is here the movie ”One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”. The article explores how this movie was used by both patients and staff in Ward 58 as a summarizing symbol of something uncomfortable and undesired, here called ”the stereotype of Cuckoo's Nest” (gökboetstereotypen). This stereotype was applied by staff as a sort of temporal reference point to contrast historical to contemporary care, in order to erase the stigma surrounding today's psychiatric institution.