One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Define acutes and chronics.

Define Acutes

Define Chronics.

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The younger patients are known as Acutes because the doctors in the ward see them as possessing acute or temporary conditions, not chronic mental illness. Therefore they have been deemed capable of being treated and ultimately turned back to society, having become able to function there.. The Acutes take up half of the ward, and the other half is filled with the Chronics, who are in the hospital for good. 

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