Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

In the early 1960s Ken Kesey was the author of the famous novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Kesey was inspired by an experiment he had encountered that year. He started working at the Menlo's Park Veterans Hospital, where he would talk to patients that were under the influence of the drugs that they were given to the patients, he knew that not all the patients in the hospital were crazy, "but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave." (Wikipedia) Back then in the 1960's it was the time where people were starting to be rebellious. People started to wear hippy clothes use drugs and were extremely liberal. During this time there were treatments

Two main treatments that were used before that are mention in the book was the Electroshock therapy "often referred to as shock treatment, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in patients to provide relief from mental disorder" (Wikipedia). The other from of therapy was the frontal lobotomy. Frontal lobotomy was very controversial back then "but were widely performed for more than two decades as treatment for schizophrenia, manic depression and bipolar disorder, among other mental illnesses. (Tanya Lewis)" At some point of the novel the both Chief Bromden and McMurphy had to undergo an electroshock therapy session for no reason as a form of punishment. The electroshock therapy was used in country to treat mental illness and it consisted of short bursts of electricity towards the patients brain. Another form of treatment was the frontal lobotomy where a pick was placed in the patients eye socket and swished the frontal lobes of the their brain around until the patient was in a vegetable-like state. Unfortunately McMurphy experiences this at the end of the end of the novel when he assaults Nurse Ratched and it became his punishment. People back then did not know much about all these mental hospitals because they were kept as a secret. Institutions were intended for the common good, but they were ignored and manipulated or even

McMurphy as a rebel, people from the 60's would have admired him because of the way he was in the novel. McMurphy was a bad boy, he embodied spontaneity sexuality, and freedom. The patients from the institute started to follow him and disobey The Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched was the main nurse, she had the authority in the institute. She embodied order, and efficiency. the people from the institute did not know how to standup to themselves, until McMurphy came along and he helped the patients regain their confidence. Some people say that the patients were better off without McMurphy because the patients lives were normal before he got there. McMurphy did not like the way the hospital was he thought it was not suitable for any human being and when he arrived he changes the institutes tone. When he arrived he sees a man in a chair and says " well what they got that man strapped down for, I don't like that, no sir,it aint dignified (McMurphy)." McMurphy brings to the hospital sense of realism and courage to the lives of these patients. McMurphy in just a few days he shows some of the patients to become independent and confident than ever before being in the hospital. One of the characters, Harding gained so much confidenace and courgae that he talked to Nurse Ratched the women he feared for years and said "Lady we think you are full of so much bull, (Harding)." Another person McMurphy made an impact