One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Psychology

1. Randle Patrick McMurphy charges into the Mental Hospital and challenges Nurse Ratched also known as the “Big Nurse” in attempts to topple what she has established. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” emptiness, placement, and apathy loom in the beginning of the novel, however once Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives the order of combines takes a drastic turn… for the good! McMurphy is a complex character because he can be seen either as a negative influence or as a positive influence because of his actions in the story. However, McMurphy a positive influence because of his actions within the novel.

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

A composer’s authorial intent is reflective of the contextual concerns of their time, a paradigmatic shift can alter the way in which individuals perceive and respond to their environment. This is shown through a comparative analysis of Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) and Mendes’ film American Beauty (1999) as both texts display similar messages of oppression and rebellion amidst their contextual framework. Both writers critique the American Dream by depicting oppression as a means to tarnish human qualities as well as exploring the sacrificial, yet inherent rebellious nature of the human condition due to the deprivation of freedom.

In Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the patients in a mental institution are put through a restorative treatment in order to follow the line and fit into society. McMurphy, he who breaks boundaries inspires the rest of the patients to live their lives when they are slowly giving up their struggle for life, to rebel against the authority of the Big Nurse and her undermining attempts to get them to submit to her power and rules. Uniformly disturbing the principal at Welton Academy and a group of determined parents attempt to conform the lives of their children to the ideals of society in the movie Dead Poets Society. The students follow the new ideas brought on by a teacher only to learn of the obstacles that face them. A romantic non-conformist, McMurphy and Keeting who challenge the system and its leaders in turn becoming the ultimate sacrifice, brings them to a new vision. They inspire the oppressed and give them confidence to be successful like Bromden and Todd or to reject reality and fail like Billy and Neil.

Interestingly, McMurphy loosely follows the path of Jesus Christ, where he begins a journey of unselfishness to help free his fellow ward members from the strong grips of the combine. With his fusion of an almost thuggish hero and a liberator, McMurphy cements himself as an archetype that was common in the psychological field from that time. In conjunction with the thoughts of many theorists, like Freud, McMurphy becomes a character that serves almost as role model for many young people. In the case of the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy’s fellow ward-mates are the figurative representation of the children McMurphy would appeal to. In the end, it is McMurphy’s rebelliousness and inevitable sacrifice that help portray him as a classical hero, while also allowing him to free society from the constraints of oppression.

As soon as McMurphy arrives on the ward, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s abusive regime in hopes of restoring humanity and the rights of the individual. It didn’t take long

In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the lead protagonist, Randle McMurphy, changes over the course of the novel because of the characters that he meets and the effects they have on him. Originally, McMurphy was selfish, disrespectful, and inconsiderate, but then he forms closer bonds with the other characters and they change him and the way he views other people. The characters in the mental hospital struggle with conforming to the dictator in the ward, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy comes into the hospital as a way out of a prison sentence and tries to teach the patients that they need to stand up for themselves and do what they believe is right.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the climax occurs when Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, forces the men who return from the boating trip to shower, causing a violent melee that leads to the book’s resolution. McMurphy, one of the protagonists in the story, arranges a special boating trip to let the other men in the ward have a sense of happiness and independence. As Nurse Ratched discovers that the men interact with a prostitute, she furiously demands the men to cleanse their bodies. George expresses his disapproval of the nurse’s demand due to his phobia of cleanliness, and McMurphy and Chief Bromden physically fight the nurses as a part of their protest. In the end McMurphy and Chief Bromden relocate to the Disturbed Ward for their extreme behavior: “They kept talking like that, to cheer us up and make us feel better, about what a fight, what a victory—as the Big Nurse helped the aides from Disturbed adjust those soft leather cuffs to fit our arms” (234). The main theme of the novel, the overthrowing of authority comes to a close, and Nurse Ratched finally captures McMurphy, the man who encourages the rest of the patients to resist her oppression. This climatic scene contributes to the resolution: the weaker party, or the patients, win by proving their point of intolerance towards authority, yet Nurse Ratched remains the ultimate person in control. Shortly after the incident, Nurse Ratched metaphorically and literally sucks the life out of McMurphy with

Over time, social norms and collective standards have lessened in value. In modern society, diversity and self-identity are seen as more desirable as opposed to fitting a particular mould that is defined by what is normal. Although, looking back about fifty years, this wasn’t the case. The societal focus was more directed towards an overall collective standard. Often times, when an individual felt as if they abnormal when compared to the average person in society, they simply accepted it and seeked refuge in an institution such as a mental institution. In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, many of the patients in the mental institution were staying voluntarily due to the overwhelming pressure radiating from society outside the asylum. This external pressure from their ”inability to adjust to society,”(pg 167) took a toll on their self-perception, convincing themselves that treatment was required. Those who are perceived as being a leader have a strong influence on others and can alter the self-perception of many individuals; Kesey shows the patients using this new self-perception to seek social conformity. Once the self confidence of an individual has diminished, the introduction of a new perspective can reverse these effects, build a sense of self-acceptance and, therefore, introduce a cure.

Randle picks up a woman who in her first greeting asks the patients if they are all “crazy” and they respond by nodding their heads. This shows that these individuals have come to adopt being “crazy” as part of their identity, because of being institutionalized and given that label. Further suggestion of this idea is in the scene where Nurse Ratched reveals to Randle that many of the in-patients are at the psychiatric hospital on a voluntary basis, and only few of them are committed, showing their internalization of their identity as mentally ill patients. Another point that can be drawn from the film is the way, which Nurse Ratched conducts the group therapy sessions. The sessions did not appear as beneficial or therapeutic to the individuals participating in them. It is evident that Nurse Ratched, an individual in a position of power, manipulates the patients into confinement in the hospital through her group therapy sessions. She consistently revisits past traumas and difficulties for the patients, which reinforces the symptoms they believe they suffer from which causes them to feel unstable and unable to leave the hospital. Thus, through these examples in the film, it is suggested that individuals admitted to psychiatric hospitals have come to adopt their mental illness as a defining feature of their identity.

While I agree that the heart of this novel is the power struggle that ensues and that RP McMurphy is not "mentally ill", the other patients are more clearly suffering illnesses, to reach the conclusion that McMurphy himself is "not crazy". As readers, we must first examine what it means to be "crazy", both to ourselves and to society at large. When researching Ken Kesey and his life, I had stumbled upon an interesting fact. Ken Kesey heard of a government program that paid people to take part in experiments with psychedelic drugs. When I heard this, I was so shocked, I thought “wow this is going to be a very interesting book.” There were things that I really enjoyed about the book, such as the narrator, McMurphy, and the crazy parties they both threw. Things that I disliked about the book was the death of poor Billy Bibbit, how nurse Ratched treated the

Nowadays there is a hot debate on what exactly causes mental illnesses. The two main suspects are society and genetics. Proponents of the genetics theory believe that there is a physical ailment of the brain which causes mental health issues. Those who support the society ideology believe that mental health is shaped by the society in which the person lives.

society, as well as sanity vs. insanity are greatly expressed through the characters actions and events in the novel, as seen from a patients eyes. Randle McMurphy, the main character of the novel portrays the theme of the individual against society through his dealings with Nurse Ratched and the hospital. “The main action of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest consists of McMurphy's struggles against Nurse Ratched. Her ward at the hospital is a society in itself. McMurphy challenges the rules from the beginning” (Malin 224). The effects of the battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is expressed in the reactions of both characters, as well as the changes brought to the ward. “But she stops. She was flustered for a second there. Some of the acutes hide grins, and McMurphy takes a huge stretch, yawns, winks at Harding” (Keasey 45). The individual vs. society theme is clearly displayed here though McMurphy's struggle against the rules of the asylum, and against the rule of Nurse Ratched. This represents a a man, or individual, fighting for his own rights when faced with the views and obstacles forced upon him by a tyrannical society with strict guidelines. The second major theme in this novel, tied to the individual vs. society, is the theme of insanity vs. sanity. “Sanity vs. insanity is a topic that is established by society itself, set by public values and rules on what normalcy should be and what insane should be qualified

Time passes and McMurphy continues to rebel. As he does so, many of the other patients follow. They break the Nurse’s Station window a couple times, start a basketball team,and even go on a fishing trip. When they return from the trip, the staff says they need to be cleaned so they are sent for “special showers.” A fight breaks out and McMurphy and Chief are sent to the Disturbed ward. Up in the Disturbed ward, McMurphy is given many “treatments” of electroshock therapy. The only way to stop the therapy is to admit that he was wrong. He refuses to admit this and continues to get the electroshock. When Chief says he should just play along, McMurphy says, “‘When I get out of here the first woman that takes on ol’ Red McMurphy the ten-thousand-watt psychopath, she’s gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars! No, I ain’t scared of their little battery-charger’” (Kesey, 250). Though he is going through torture, McMurphy continues to resist Nurse Ratched’s methods of conforming him. He is persistent in not giving in to the society. McMurphy continues to fight, even when everyone knows it’s a losing battle.

We feel that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest is filled with many psychological connotations. This movie is set in a mental hospital where McMurphy was admitted to be psychologically evaluated because of violent behavior. Upon his arrival McMurphy noticed that the patients were very robot-like in their actions. The hospital is extremely structured where the patient’s daily life was monotonous. We will discuss the various connotations by answering the following questions that have been asked.