Flew Over the Cuckoo\'s Nest

¶ … Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

"I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science."

McMurphy

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a modern classic novel that weaves the story of how one man was led in his journey of rediscovering himself by another moan's daunting spirit to defy authority and conformity. Narrated from the point-of-view of a seemingly marginal character in the story, it is the story of Randle Patric McMurphy, of how he unwittingly "liberated" mentally ill men from the shackles of the repressive and oppressive Nurse Ratched, also known as the Big Nurse, who holds sway over their life and limb inside the mental facility. The seemingly quiet control that the Big Nurse was disputed with the arrival of McMurphy who deliberately submitted himself to the mental institution to escape the wretchedness of the work-farm prison where he is serving his term for statutory rape.

From the first time McMurphy set foot on the facility, he gave every inkling that he would be a respectful patient but did not conceal his defiance against authority and conformity. His boisterous grand entrance astonished even the most subdued among the patients indicating that the silence has inadvertently been broken. Thus began the power struggle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched; one to undermine the tyrannical power that forces those rendered mentally and emotionally powerless to yield only to themselves to undermine while the other silently and subtly exerting and asserting her power. In the case of those who have been physiologically incapacitated, the hope to break free is nil. Amidst the hustle and bustle of this power struggle is the silent narration of Chief Bromden who unconsciously took relative control of his life in a deranged environment by pretending to be deaf and dumb. This gave him the benefit of seeing and hearing while posing as no threat to both patients and hospital authorities with his silence. The key themes of individuality and rebellion against authority and conformity in both book and film resonate the socially turbulent times of the 1960s when the cultural fabric of America was undergoing a revolution. Coming out of the comforts of post-War America is the newfound resistance against the system and the diminishing respect for authority (Goodwin and Bradley). Written and published in an era of mass protests and social upheaval, the story condemns the system that literally and figuratively lobotomizes whatever is left of the mental faculty of people who are supposedly needing society's guardianship. The story is an indictment of the dehumanizing practice of psychiatric drug and electroshock treatments, which was slowly gaining criticism in the early 1960s (Faggen ix). While the story has strong anti-psychiatry narrative, it nonetheless depicts the different ways society deals with people with mental dysfunction: the repressive and controlling system represented by Nurse Ratched and her aides, the arms-length treatment (sometimes condescending) ways of Dr. Spivery, and the attempts at normalcy of both Candy and Sandy. Overall, though, emphasis was on the repressive and oppressive relations that Nurse Ratched has with her wards. Viewed to be a critique of the system, Nurse Ratched aptly personifies the unfeeling practice of psychiatry, which was slowly gaining criticism when the book was first published. Among the critiques of the psychiatric practice was psychoanalyst Dr. Thomas S. Szasz who, in a recent publication defines psychiatry as "the theory and practice of coercion, rationalized as the diagnosis of mental illness and justified as medical treatment aimed at protecting the patient from himself and society from the patient" (Szasz). In the same article he questions the moral justness of incarcerating patients who have been diagnosed to have mental disorders (Szasz). The moral justness of diminishing the value of people who are "mentally sick" is plainly shown in both film and novel with Nurse Ratched exercising total power and control over patients and, in certain instances, she feigns concern for what is blatantly a disregard for the overall welfare of her wards. Nurse Ratched's control within the walls of the hospital is expressed in varied ways in both the novel and the film adaptation: the rigid schedule she subjects the patients, pitting her wards against one another by encouraging them to display each other's dirty laundry in a public space such as the logbook, having the switch for the television and radio to regulate their use, among many other forms. By encouraging the patients to put each other's "dirty laundry" in the logbook, Nurse Ratched exercises her power over the patients with her divide-and-conquer mindset by shamelessly pitting the inmates against each other. Her obsession with control is seen with her unflinching commitment to a routine that only McMurphy had the courage to challenge with his insistence to watch the World Series. Her control over the facility is further enhanced by the submissiveness of her assistants and the ruthlessness of her two aides, William and Washington. Her manipulative ways makes that control all the more oppressive, as it disguises as concern for the patients' well-being.

McMurphy's admission in the institution, however, challenged the tyrannical hold of Nurse Ratched on the patients, after which a series of power struggles emerged. One of the many instances of this power struggle between the two main characters was McMurphy's deliberate attempt to ruffling Nurse Ratched's feathers when he came out of the bathroom in a towel. This sparked the nurse's indignation, an instance when McMurphy has claimed a small victory over her when it was eventually revealed that he had purposefully intended to embarrass her as a means of undermining her authority and control. The total disgust elicited by McMurphy's stunts on Nurse Ratched indicates the latter's view that the former did not have any business challenging her authority, especially not in front of the patients whom she exercised control over before McMurphy arrived. As McMurphy revels in his newfound role as the instigator of rebellion against Nurse Ratched's authority, he misunderstood and underestimated how Nurse Ratched can exert such dominance over the patients. And there lies the true power behind Nurse Ratched's dominance-having the instruments that makes the inmates cower into submission. Such total control reveals society's complicity to the inhumane treatment of patients with mental disorder. The mere existence of facilities for electroshock treatments and surgical operations convicts the state and its institutions, and reveals its view that people with mental cases are justified to be put under brutal intervention. As the story shows, patients are not only forced into submission but they are predisposed to becoming worthless members of society, as portrayed by the Wheelers or the Vegetables, to be subject to medical treatments that will suppress any non-conforming behavior as determined by Nurse Ratched. Man, as Chief Bromden narrates, is likened to a machine with parts that can be deemed reparable, categorized under the Acutes, or irreparable, the Chronics who are further categorized as Walkers and Wheelers or Vegetables. While institution authorities have this view of the inmates, McMurphy represents those that view even mentally sick people as having the capacity to exercise their mental faculties even in a limited sense. This view of McMurphy, however, is challenged by Nurse Ratched with the particularly poignant scene in the film when he elicits their votes to watch the World Series on television, which the Big Nurse does not allow. In a seemingly smart move to undermine Nurse Ratched once again, he lures the others to join him in his imaginary World Series.

Reading the text and viewing the movie from the perspective of control, one is confronted with the question of who determines what makes a person sane or insane. Who determines whether one falls into one category and not in the other? According to Leifer, "[a]dult psychiatric patients ... can be defined as mentally ill, involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution, and forced to submit to drugging and electroshock" (1). While one may be arbitrarily diagnosed as needing mental treatments, this makes him/her susceptible to being a subject of medical-psychiatric treatments. Leifer succinctly points out in that "[d]iagnosing" persons as mentally ill who complain of or display certain forms of undesired and undesirable thought, mood, and behavior renders them vulnerable to being managed by a ubiquitous mental health system. Involuntary confinement and forced drugging can be seen as means of social control" (2). He strongly contends that & #8230; "psychiatry violates the principle of rule of law which prohibits depriving a person of freedom without an accusatory indictment and a trial by jury governed by rules of evidence which gives a verdict of guilt for violating a specific law. This critique of psychiatry is based on the ethical and political respect for individual freedom under law which is the political foundations of this republic. Medical-coercive psychiatry violates these fundamental values" (Leifer 2). On the other hand, one can deliberately inspire his/her admission to a mental facility as the case of McMurphy. Szasz aptly describes such calculated choice of McMurphy as a means of assuming the role of a mental patient sans the mental illness as a means of escape, which he openly admitted (25). Despite his being the most lucid among the inmates, he was still not immune to psychiatric intervention that led to his eventual defeat against Nurse Ratched. This makes society all the more oppressive, not accepting any dissent or differing perspective and eliminating those it cannot subdue. Thus, the story resonates Szasz's argument that mental illness is a myth and that psychiatry is a practice masquerading as a science to exert control over behavior by medical treatment that do not necessarily have physio-biological bases.

Disturbing as it is, both book and movie teaches the valuable lesson that even so-called social misfits or people relegated to being mentally deranged do find their sense of self given the right motivations and under positive and uplifting circumstances. McMurphy's character highlights the need for man to challenge the norm, not necessarily for the benefit of the self but more so for others. In his journey to liberate himself from the drudgery of prison, his conscious choice of having himself admitted into a mental institution indicates a sad sense of wanting to take control of his life again. Circumventing the system that has relegated him as a deviant, he sets to another environment where he will not necessarily be considered as a deviant -- the mental institution.

There were some departures from the novel, which would have given the movie more meaning and depth. First off, it was not apparent in the movie that the movie was taken from the perspective of Chief Bromden. The beauty of such role given to the silent, unimposing giant that he is gives a more personal touch to the narrative. The book also allows the reader to easily see the shift from the lucid Chief Bromden to his "fog machine" reverie than in the movie. Such purposeful and significant segment in the novel and its absence in the movie defeat the progress of Bromden's character development in the story. This is a substantial departure in the movie. This is a missed opportunity to peek into Bromden's journey to finding himself again.

Another obvious change in the film version that has been made was the fishing expedition that the inmates were allowed to have. The book was more specific about the small but significant changes taking place in the characters such as when Billy, for the first time since his stay in the institution, rediscovered his sexuality to indicate that one's humanity is not lost even when repressed for long periods of time. The fishing outing was so abbreviated in the movie that the segment in the gas station was not included, which would have added another texture to one of the key issues tackled by the novel, which is to demonstrate the negative attitudes of society at large towards people who are diagnosed as having mental illness. The movie likewise did not include the segment where the men were made to realize that they can use their insanity as leverage instead of a handicap when they were intimidated by the gas-station attendant. The movie also doesn't show the harassment they get from the fishermen and it departs from the novel when McMurphy instead introduced themselves as doctors from the mental institution. In what could be an otherwise serious scene, as depicted in the book, the movie made light about their experience at sea with the accompanying soundtrack. What is missing in the movie, however, was the turning point when the men as makes another discovery about themselves that they can be "normal" individuals if only for a moment, without any aid from McMurphy.

While there may have been a lot of modifications from the novel to its film adaptation, it does not in any way diminish the value of either the book or the movie. In a sense, what was lacking in one rendition the other makes up for it. One would experience the story more if one does both reading the book and watching the film. The merits of having the company of the book is for the reader to have the opportunity to sit back and think on the different musings, which may not arise should the experience be limited only for the movie. A lot of imagery and symbolism can be gleaned from the book, which is more difficult to figure when watching the film. On the other hand, watching the movie helps the reader to feel the texture of the characters with the masterful portrayal of high-caliber artists such as Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher.

Both the book and movie may leave one a feeling of sadness and tragedy over the demise of McMurphy in the hands of his friend, Bromden. It reminds one of yet another tragic ending in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The tragic ending, however, imparts many lessons about our humanity.

As McMurphy's character has shown, our actions as influenced by our beliefs, no matter how erroneous at the onset, can have beneficial outcomes. While one may view his decision to voluntarily commit himself into the hands of a merciless mental institution to escape labor from prison, his strong-willed antics have inspired in his fellow patients to rediscover the inner strength that they have in spite of the limitations imposed by their mental incapacity. His unyielding respect for their capability to make independent decisions has helped the men see their humanity, even for a moment. This is poignantly depicted when Nurse Ratched wanted to insinuate that McMurphy was taking advantage of them by taking their money and the inmates defended him by saying, in a brief show of defiance against another of Ratched's attempt to turn them against each other, that they were well aware of the bets they were making. The moving scene, while it was overall hilarious with Jack Nicholson's portrayal, of Bromden finally speaking shows a moment of vulnerability yet it builds trust between the two men. As McMurphy finds an ally in the silent giant, Bromden finds confidence in himself.

A more tragic revelation that comes towards the end of the film, however, is McMurphy's realization that he entered the battle not knowing that his defeat has already been set up. Concealing Nurse Ratched's secret weapon to cow the patients into submission was a very realistic display of man's tendency, even in his deranged state, to protect himself by deflecting the wrath of an enemy to the unknowing party. This sort of betrayal put McMurphy in a bind, thereby making him more careful and calculated in his display of rebellion against Nurse Ratched's authority. It is indeed tragic that in exchange for all the wrath he had to incur to awaken the humanity in the patients in the ward, McMurphy has been trapped in the web that he unwittingly created. But not admitting defeat despite the reality he faces, he continues to wage his "crusade" to liberate the men from the wretchedness of Nurse Ratched's oppression. One of McMurphy's most endearing traits is unquenchable need to help the inmates regain their self-respect and his disregard for his own welfare. Such selflessness is not common in a society that has become so consumed with the self and upward mobility. He always had the choice to keep things as quiet as possible, biding his time in the mental institution and enjoying the relative comfort in the hospital. But he chose to rock the boat, as the rebel in him dictates.