Transcript One Flew Over the Cuckoo*s Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
KEN KESEY
Ken Kesey
 Born in Oregon in 1935, Kesey grew up in Colorado; he
married his high school sweetheart in 1956 and graduated
from the University of Oregon in 1957.
 Throughout the 1960’s, Kesey sank deeper into the drug
culture and developed into a leader of the counterculture
hippie set. (Eventually, he was arrested for drugs and fled
to Mexico to avoid prison; he later returned and served 6
months in jail.)
 Kesey formed the Merry Pranksters, a group of people
who lived together and at one time traveled around the
country on a painted bus they called “Further.”
The Merry Pranksters
& More…
 The misdeeds of the Merry Pranksters were chronicled by Tom Wolfe in
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1967), as well as in poems by Allen
Ginsberg. Other contemporaries include Timothy Leary, Jack Kerouac,
Hunter S. Thompson, Neal Cassady, and The Grateful Dead.
 Kesey remained in the public eye with articles in numerous magazines,
such as Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Esquire, and High Times. At age 60, he
appeared in Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. In 1997, he reunited with the
Merry Pranksters at a Phish concert, one of his last public performances.
More…
 Kesey is often remembered as the link between the Beat generation of the
1950’s and the Hippie generation of the 1960’s.
 Kesey died in November of 2001, after an operation for liver cancer.
Inspiration
 The narrative of this novel is strange. Why?
 Kesey worked as a night warden at a mental hospital. He was
so determined to understand what it felt like to be a patient, he
underwent electroshock therapy himself.
 While studying at Stanford, Kesey volunteered for a medical
study. Conveniently for him, the study consisted of ingested a
ton of LSD and other hallucinogens.
 While working in the mental institution, Kesey started
formulating the plot for Cuckoo’s Nest. He decided many of
the patients were nonconformists rather than insane. Many
characters were based on actual patients and staff at the
hospital.
 He wrote parts of the book while on acid, especially to
create Chief Bromden.
Adaptations
 The novel was adapted for
both stage and the screen.
 The 1975 film won the “big
five” Oscars: best film, best
adapted screenplay, best
actress, best actor, and best
director.
 Kesey sued the producers
because he was upset they
changed the point of view
of his novel in the film.
Narration
Chief Bromden
 Be patient with the Chief.
 He’s done a lot of drugs
(just like Kesey) and has
been treated with ECT
many times.
 Remember that Chief is
our narrator and not the
protagonist (that’s
McMurphy).
What is this?
Combine Harvester
 A combine harvester is an agricultural machine that
harvests all types of cereals, oil seeds, and legumes
through four main steps:

The crop is cut and directed into a rotating chamber with a
series of beaters going the opposite direction. The grain is
dislodged, falls to the bottom, and is then separated from
debris by sieves and wind. The grain is transferred to a hopper
for transfer and the debris falls from the back of the machine
through a chute.
Motifs
 Fog
 Hands
 Nature (as purity)
 Machinery (the combine, for example)
 Christ/Christ-figure
 Sanity vs. Insanity
 Laughter
Inside Mental Wards
Procedures
 All guests must check in with the front desk (i.e. a
nurse).
 Most patients were/are admitted by family members,
though some patients commit themselves.
 Many patients are given off-campus privileges,
meaning they could leave at any time for short day
trips. But many do not leave.
Mental Hospitals in the 1930-1960s
 Conditions were often bad.
 Over-crowded
 Dirty
 Lacked privacy
 Shared many features with that of a prison – if not worse
Inside
 Patients were provided with “adequate care” (and
segregated) which often led to inadequate care, poor
facilities, and loss of dignity.
 Patients were usually given uniforms and daily
“chores.” In fact, it wasn’t until 1973 that New York
state banned public hospitals from requiring patients
to work in exchange for their room and board.
 Families were often ashamed of the patients and
denied their problem and/or existence.
 Ultimately, some of the hospitals became holding
areas for a person’s entire life.
Medical Care
 Deaths and injuries sometimes resulted from both
appropriate and inappropriate treatments.
 Patients were often treated with medically approved
procedures like: being put in tanks of ice-cold water,
spun in chairs for hours, and forced “medications”
(powerful psychoactive drugs).
 Patients were also “treated” with non-medically
approved procedures which were simply designed to
control them. For example, patients could be
shackled to walls, placed in seclusion, or placed in
restraints.
Types of Treatments for the
Mentall Ill
GROUP THERAPY
DRUG THERAPY
ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY
LOBOTOMY
Drug Therapy
 Thorazine
 The first psychotropic drug.
 A milestone in treatment therapy.
 Made it possible to calm unruly behavior, anxiety, agitation,
and confusion without using physical restraints.
 “Chemical restraint.”
Drug Therapy
 Chlorpromazine
 Schizophrenic psychosis or manic-depressive disorder
Electroshock/Electroconvulsive Therapy
 Popular in the 1930-1940s.
 Originated to control negative behaviors in animals.
 A doctor noticed that schizophrenic epileptics who
had a seizure often were more “normal” after the
seizure, which led to chemical convulsives and
ultimately electroconvulsive treatment.
 Used to alter the chemistry in the human brain,
producing the desired behaviors (i.e. docile, calm).
 Cruelly, it was used as a control device in most
wards.
ECT Today
 Electroshock therapy was and is controversial, but it
is still used today.
 It is used primarily to treat certain forms of severe
depression.


Control the elderly.
Correct wild/unwanted behaviors in children.
Lobotomy
 Surgical procedure for cutting nerve pathways in the
frontal lobes of the brain. The operation has been
performed on mentally ill patients whose behavioral
patterns were not improved by other forms of treatment;
it was supposed to be a last resort, but often was not. The
procedure was pioneered by Nobel laureate Egas Moniz
in the 1930s.
 Between 1939 and 1955, over 100,000 lobotomies were
performed in the United States alone.
 If performed correctly, disconnecting the frontal lobes
caused no loss intellect, no impairment of memory, and
no problems with speech or gait.
How to Perform a Lobotomy
 Leucotomy
 The goal was to cut the nerves that run from the front of the
brain to the rear. A technique was devised that involved
drilling two holes on either side of the forehead, inserting a
surgical knife, and severing the prefrontal cortex from the rest
of the brain.
Ice Pick Lobotomy
Invented in 1936 by Walter Freeman
Insert any ordinary ice pick above each eye with
only local anesthetic, drive it through the thin
bone with a light tap or a mallet, swish the pick
back and forth, then remove.
Lobotomy Abuse
 Freeman developed what
others called assembly line
lobotomies, going from one
patient to the next with his
gold-plated ice pick, even
having his assistants time
him to see if he could break
the lobotomy speed record.
It is said that even some
seasoned surgeons fainted
at the sight.
 Doctors would recommend
the procedure for
everything from psychosis
to depression to neurosis to
criminality.
Lobotomy
“Every patient probably loses something
by this operation, some spontaneity, some
sparkle, some flavor of the personality.”
 The aim was that “the patient might be
transformed from a disturbed to a quiet
clement [insane person]” There was no
intention to “help” the patient. The goal
was only to eradicate the behavior which
others found undesirable.
 “Mercy killing of the psyche.”
 The frontal lobe is the seat of the higher
functions, such as love, concern for others,
empathy, self-insight, creativity, initiative,
autonomy, rationality, abstract reasoning,
judgment, future planning, foresight, willpower, determination and concentration.

“Deinstitutionalization revolution” : the mid1960s
 A radical “deinstitutionalization revolution” began.
 It was supposed to end the cruel and inadequate care
in institutions.
 Individuals would live in their communities and have
a “normalized” life.
 Group homes, residential care facilities, and rooming
housing were developed.
 The movement helped to break up the control that
was happening in the hospitals.
Major Themes
YES OR NO?
Discipline
Insanity
 Discipline is absolutely
 All people are “crazy” –
necessary in most
situations.
at least a little.
Power
Institutions
 One person can change
 The best place for those
an established, stable
environment.
with mental illness is in
an institution and/or
hospital.
Men
Hatred
 Our society forces men
 Hatred is part of
to act like “real men.”
human nature.
Rules
Self-esteem
 The more rules the
 Self-esteem is not very
better off we are.
important to daily
living.