The Use of Laughter as Medicine in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

   The choice that a novelist makes in deciding the point of view for a novel is hardly a minor one. Few authors make the decision to use first person narration by secondary character as Ken Kesey does in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  By choosing Bromden as narrator instead of the central character of Randle Patrick McMurphy, Kesey gives us narration that is objective, that is to say from the outside of the central character, and also narration that is subjective and understandably unreliable. The paranoia and dementia that fill Bromden's narration set a tone for the struggle for liberation that is the theme of the story. It is also this choice of narrator that leads

"Successively, Selekman explains that fostering therapist-client cooperation is purposive use of self-disclosure, the use of humor, normalizing, demonstrating cultural and gender sensitivity, and therapeutic compliments. Mark Twain once said, 'Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.' Humor can help generate a relaxed atmosphere, influence the client from his or her concerns, and heal those in pain. Madanes (1984) contend that what makes change possible is the therapist's ability to be confident and to see what is funny or desirable in a dire situation'. Laughter releases hormones from the

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey during a time in our society when pressures of our modern world seemed at their greatest. Many people were, at this time, deemed by society’s standards to be insane and institutionalized. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in a ward of a mental institution. The major conflict in the novel is that of power. Power is a recurring and overwhelming theme throughout the novel. Kesey shows the power of women who are associated with the patients, the power Nurse Ratched has, and also the power McMurphy fights to win. By default, he also shows how little power the patients have.

Everything seen as unfathomable ideals at the time are used in the book to help point out how ridiculous they are. For example one of the many crucial roles in One who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is the evil Nurse Ratched who obliterates all of the standards of women during this time. She is an authoritative figure who has complete control over the male patients in the ward. She can play with them as if they are her puppets she makes even the biggest man on the Ward Chief, a 6’7 foot Indian feel tiny in comparison. In fact Chief explains to Mcmurphy “No. I’m way too little . I used to be big, but not no more.You twice my size. ” ( Kesey #219) This proves how Nurse Ratched as such control over her patients that a 6’7 man thinks he is smaller than the height of the average man like Mcmurphy. She uses any opportunity she can to get into the head of her patients by forcing the patients to repetitively speak about their flaws and insecurities and writes every bit of information down to use against them later. These tortuous meeting usually cause the patients to go into a fit the most notable patient is Billy Bibit, a man known for his stuttering problems exclaimed “ 'I c-c-couldn't take it. Wh-wh-wh-whenever the officer in charge of class would call roll, call Bibit, I couldn't answer.” then he says “You were supposed to say, “Here sir,” and I never c-c-could get it out.”(Kesey #56) This viscous routine of her silencing the patients by making them confess what they lack in order to fit into society continued until McMurphy Showed

Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched’s restrictions.

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.

laughter can free a man who is under the control of an unjust authority. Through the

Ken Kesey utilizes Jesus Christ as a constant symbol throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The protagonist of the story acts as a model and leader for other characters in the book, just as Christ was for his disciples. It is appropriate that such a leader would be closely associated with a powerful, and worshiped figure. Kesey's use of Christ associates the ideas or theories in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with the bible. McMurphy, however, may seem an unlikely Christ-figure due to his violent, sexual and seemingly immoral behavior. His behavior is merely an embodiment of the reforming movements that both Jesus and McMurphy share. Kesey's

It is with this paranoid rambling that the reader meets Bromden. As the first chapter progresses we witness more instances of his troubled mind and his way of describing people as part machine, part human. Nurse Ratched is the called "the Big Nurse," by Bromden. His description of her is an example of his ability to link people with machines. "She slides through the door with a gust of cold...(the) tip of each finger the same color as her lips. Funny orange. Like the tip of a soldering iron. Color so hot or so cold if she touches you with it you can't tell which." (Pg. 4 Kesey). She has the ability, in Bromden's mind, to increase her size. She, "blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big you can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load." (Pg 5 Kesey). These descriptions of humans who are made part machine, part human allow the reader to get a clearer understanding of Bromden's illness. This, I believe, is a positive aspect of the novel, however there would seem to be, at least one, negative aspect to Kesey's choice of narrators.

People always say that laughter alleviates tension. If this is the case, then it makes sense that the use of humor when discussing uncomfortable topics can make the conversation easier and more light-hearted. One of Mark Twain’s most frequently used devices in works such as “Advice to Youth”, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness”, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is satire, which can provide society a method to bond over uncomfortable topics, and facilitate the ability to sustain that bond through an easier way to create discussion.

The author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Keasey, received his inspiration for the book while volunteering at a veteran's hospital. This is where he was first introduced to LSD. The moment he tried it, he became addicted, and began experimenting on himself with the drugs, observing the effects. The novel deals with the tyrannical rule of head Nurse Ratched in a mental hospital somewhere in Oregon. She runs all business and daily life in the asylum to her every whim and rules the ward by fear and manipulation. This has gone on for as long as the narrator, Chief Bromden, can remember. However a new patient, Randle McMurphy, enters the hospital and begins to wreak havoc upon the system

Characters like Billy Bibbit, who is too timid, with a speech impediment and Harding who is a closet homosexual and was less avert in sexuality were seen as having mental problems, and were committed to the asylum. McMurphy demonstrated the treating of these patients like normal people, helped them to become more in line with society then Nurse Ratched’s rules and group therapy meetings, or pecking party as Chief Bromden would call it. Chief Bromden was a Native American and wasn’t insane until he was institutionalized and withdrew himself from everyone else pretending he was deaf and dumb to protect himself. Ken Kesey’s message here with Chief Bromdens silence, was to portray the natives of the time having no voice in the country and to show the controlling and manipulative manner of Nurse Ratched that emasculated and de-socialised these grown men.

Our perspective of a stranger whom we’ve never met nor seen, but only heard of through the mouth of the enemy’s opinion, will inevitably align with the only version of the story we’ve heard. This sort of bias is found in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Nurse Ratched’s depiction through the narration by Chief Bromden. The reliability of Bromden’s perspective is questionable, as it is his interpretation of the world, rather than what it actually is.

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.

Van Wormer, K., and M. Boes. "HUMOR IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM: A Social Work Perspective." Welcome! Web. 23 Sept. 2011. .