What is the water device that “Chief” Bromden used to crash out of the hospital at the end of the movie?
Searching the web, some refer to it as a “water fountain” but there are at least one or two pressure(?) gauges and it looks way too complicated to be a fountain.
Other sites refer to it as a “control panel” which seems a bit more plausible.
What is it, what does it do and how is it used?
Thanks.
It has one big gauge and four smaller gauges (2 on each side), and what looks to be 3 valves of some sort on either side, and two more on the end with maybe a small sink. It’s located
If you pause this clip at the 1:11 mark you can get a decent look at it.
“Hydro-therapy control panel (images)” yields one or two pictures of it, but still doesn’t describe what it is/does. Just the word “hydrotherapy” invokes the idea of water massage or hot tubs.
I’m seeing enough hints on the web to indicate that this is something real and not just something made up for a movie. Maybe I’m wrong…
If it’s a real object, somebody should know what it is/does.
What was an idle question in my mind after watching the movie again last night has turned into a burning mystery. And the web is not helping. Dammit.
Moderator Action
And since this is movie related, let’s move it to our movie forum.
Moving thread from General Questions to Cafe Society.
This looks pretty similar:
http://historyofstelizabeths.blogspot.com/2013/06/hydrotherapy-at-st-elizabeths.html
Yes it does, but again, no explanation. Why spray from a distance? What’s the apparatus surrounding the “patient”?
I’m going to object about moving this to Cafe Society - yes, the device that I am questioning is in a movie, but unless I am really wrong, the question is about a device, not the movie.
The description under the picture says it’s a “multi-headed shower”. It looks to me like the apparatus surrounding the patient is four shower heads mounted on each vertical bar, with four bars total that works out to 16 shower heads. The caption also notes that they could spray the patient with a hose.
I’m just going by the pictures and the description though. I have no idea how it was used. Given that the picture dates back to 1902 I could imagine them using cold water to control unruly patients or something similar that would be considered almost a torture device these days.
As for the thread move, while the question you asked is factual, the device in question is part of a major plot point for the movie, which makes me think that it belongs in CS. The move to CS does not prevent the factual question from being answered. It also allows discussion of the movie and the plot, which these types of questions usually lead to, and would not be permissible in GQ. Any further discussion of the thread move should take place in a separate thread in ATMB.
I leave this go except to say that I didn’t care about the movie or the plot, only the device.
I found some interesting links that might help-some are probably NSFW and may be triggers.
Real photos of hydrotherapy rooms vs. OFOTCN
http://opacity.us/image7368_hydrotherapy_room.htm
U.S. Early twentieth century treatments
Punishment or therapy. Patients, doctors, and somatic remedies in the early twentieth century - PubMed
And in London
https://www.lib.uwo.ca/archives/virtualexhibits/londonasylum/hydrotherapy.html
The douche bath
hydrotherapy | Indians, Insanity, and American History Blog
More London treatment
http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/briefhistorytreatments.html
Does anybody here remember how it was described in the book? (I read it 40-some years ago. So I don’t remember, except that it was definitely the same plot device in the book.) It was some kind of big heavy control panel that presumably nobody could budge. But earlier in the book, McMurphy had suggested to Bromden that Bromden could pick it up, which Bromden didn’t believe at the time.
In the book it was described as part of a hydrotherapy system in which patients were strapped down and sprayed with water. I think it also said the therapy had fallen into disfavor, so the system hadn’t been used in some time.
I recall that mcMurphy made a big show about trying to pick it up and failing and how when he was ribbed about it he responded that at least he’d tried.
I vaguely remember reading that extreme hydrotherapy was used to control violent patients. They strapped him down and hosed him from several directions at once. Torture as sensory overload. It was supposed to “snap him out of it” and make him docile.
Having the Chief throw it out the window served two purposes, to break the window and to symbolize the revolt against inhumane treatment.
This helps a bit - thanks!
At least I now know what it was used for.