Finding evidentiary quotes to support a diagnosis of schizophrenia for Bromden first requires that we have an established set of signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. Popular media often stereotypes the disorder as having certain qualities which are not part of the diagnostic criteria (for example, multiple personalities). As such, the first step in this process should not be identifying quotes but instead finding a reputable source for symptoms and signs of schizophrenia and then using quotes to argue that he meets that criteria. In the links section below, I am providing a URL that goes to an article written by a LCSW who has written up a document on the DSM-V definition of schizophrenia, the manual that providers use to diagnose psychiatric disorders.

With Bromen, you can easily make a case for his having delusional thought content (beliefs not based in reality), hallucinations (sensations of things that are not there) and negative symptoms, which are an absence of normal expression. Included in the criteria for diagnosis is that these symptoms interfere with his ability to maintain relationships, engage in self-care, or hold down a job and that these symptoms have lasted for at least six months. Since the question only calls for quotes that could show he has this diagnosis, it seems prudent to ignore the part of the diagnostic criteria that says other disorders must be ruled out as well.

Bromen provides many quotable moments that suggests his thoughts may not be based in reality. When he tells the reader about being shaved, he says,

Shaving before you get breakfast is the worst time. When you got something under your belt you’re stronger and more wide awake, and the bastards who work for the Combine aren’t so apt to slip one of their machines in on you in place of an electric shaver. But when you shave before breakfast like she has me do some mornings - six-thirty in the morning in a room all white walls and white basins, and long-tube lights in the ceiling making sure there aren’t any shadows, and faces all round you trapped screaming behind the mirrors (Kesey 6).

Bromen believes that this organization he calls the Combine (which he elaborates on later) uses the orderlies to shove machines in you disguised as electric shavers. Given that there is no evidence to suggest that such an organization exists and that such events occur, one might assume his belief is delusional. He gives the reader a little more about these beliefs, as well as an example of a possible hallucination, when he talks about a time where he managed to not take his medications, spitting it out in the broom closet,

For a tick of time, before it all turned into white dust, I saw it was a miniature electronic element like the ones I helped the Radar Corps work with in the Army, microscopic wires and grids and transistors, this one designed to dissolve on contact with air (Kesey 27)…

Given that this story is not detailing how a man really is up against an outside entity putting machines into his medications and into his skin through shavers, one can assume that he did not actually see a machine come out his medications and what he saw was not real.

Bromen makes frequent references to the Combine and later elaborates on what he believes they are and how they work—and given that there is no actual evidence of their existence, these quotes provide evidence of his disorder.