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

The goal of most mental hospitals is rehabilitation of the human psyche. To be cured of a mental disorder is nearly impossible, but the purpose of these hospitals is to attempt to suppress certain parts of a person’s subconscious. These parts are what cause a disturbance in the mind of patients, and are controlled by different medications and treatments. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the “eccentric” (Tanner, T) Ken Kesey utilizes the psychoanalytic theory and his own life experiences to depict his dynamic character’s dreams, hidden subconscious thoughts, the reality of their ego, and basic desires of their id.
Kesey uses his character’s dreams to reveal their subconscious desires, express what they wish they could accomplish, but are

limited due to society’s rules, and showcase what they secretly desire when their subconscious goes unchecked during their sleep. The only character’s dreams that Kesey truly delves into is Chief Bromden. Towards the middle of the novel Chief goes to sleep without taking his “little red capsule” that is given to all of the patients to not only ensure they sleep through the night, but that they are “paralyzed with sleep” (85). Without this sleeping pill, Bromden’s “acute awareness of the staff’s desire to control all aspects of the men’s lives” (Explanation) enables his hallucinations. While lying down in his usual silence, he drifts into an unmedicated sleep that allows him to reveal his deepest subconscious desires. What he desires most is to discover all the secrets of how the ward works, and he believes that during this dream he discovered this truth. Chief suggests that the entire floor in which they are on drops down like a “platform in a grain elevator” (86). He hears nothing but a “drumming” and sees a “huge room of endless machines” (86). What he sees is a fantasy of an alternate universe or reality, where the workers all move in a “fluid state” (87) instead of always being in such a hurry. Also during this rather gruesome dream, Chief Bromden sees one of the “vegetable” (88) patients being taken from his bed. After being hung upside down, Vegetable Blastic is approached by a worker with a scalpel. Chief sees that the “worker takes the scalpel and slices up the front of old Blastic” but instead of seeing blood and organs spill out, there is nothing but a “shower of rust and ashes” (88). Ultimately what Bromden is seeing is the “staff manipulating patients mechanically via electronic circuitry concealed behind the hospital’s walls” (Explanation). Chief’s thoughts are completely unchecked while he is asleep, and while what he dreams is unreal it reveals his inner subconscious thoughts about the ward. These thoughts reveal what Bromden has believed all along; Nurse Ratched and the Combine are mechanically controlling the patients on the ward.
The dynamic character Randle P. McMurphy arrives to the ward thinking he is different from the other patients in the ward, but throughout the novel his hidden subconscious thoughts about his true mental state are revealed. McMurphy enters the ward and introduces laughter. He claims he’s looking for “new blood for his poker games,” (Olderman) so he immediately begins to sizing up all of the men. As he “laughs, winks, and goes around shaking limp hands” (Olderman) the first stage of irony sets in. Although he was looking for new blood “it is he that does the transferring and the giving of blood” (Olderman”. While introducing himself to the patients, McMurphy tells the background story of how he ended up in the ward. He says that the “court ruled that [he’s] a psychopath” (13), and he didn’t argue with that ruling. Although he doesn’t deny that he belongs in a mental ward, he claims that he only acted the way he did to leave “those damned pea fields” (13) and quit working. Because he is a true gambler at heart, he bets the patients that he can get under Nurse Ratched’s skin and shake up things on the ward. It’s evident that McMurphy “secretly admires an opponent” (Whissen) such as Nurse Ratched. Due to this he can’t help the fact that “he will use anybody in his struggle to overpower her,” (Whissen) which will eventually lead not only to his death, but the death of a fellow patient. The way he doesn’t take things seriously shows that he most likely believes that he is better than everyone else on the ward, although he is one of the only ones committed. When the patients get to visit the pool, McMurphy meets a patient from the Disturbed ward who he can relate to because he is also committed. The patient was picked up for a trivial offense but has been there for “eight years and eight months” (171). After realizing that being committed meant that how long he stays is up to the head nurse and doctor, McMurphy’s entire demeanor changes from rebellious to submissive. He finished two months on the work farm and only had four more months until he would be released. Four months was the “most he wanted to spend locked up any place” (171), and he had already spent a month on the ward. Although the ward had better living conditions than the work farm, it was guaranteed that he would be released from the farm as long as he completed his sentence. But now, there is no set day for him to leave the ward. McMurphy starts to realize that he might’ve made a mistake by trying to get out of a few months of work, and trading that for commitment to a mental hospital. In the back of his mind McMurphy knew that he might be on the ward longer than what he bargained for, and that dreadful subconscious thought has finally become conscious.
The ego of the subconscious is what causes a person to struggle to discover a balance between their id and the superego.

In this novel, most of the patients are battling to find the balance between these two integral parts of their subconscious. In attempt to find his balance, McMurphy devises a plan that would satisfy both the id and superego. His id’s basic desire is to leave the ward, but his superego would give him a sense of guilt if he left in a socially unacceptable way. Therefore, he decides that a deep sea fishing trip would be a good excuse to try and get some fellow patients out of the ward to see the outside world. At first Nurse Ratched tries to discourage anyone for signing up for the trip by claiming that “the sea was rough and dangerous” (208), and “many boats’d sunk” (227). Although she tried her hardest to deny McMurphy his request, the fishing trip did eventually occur. This trip was more than a way for the patients to leave the ward for a few hours. It was a way for McMurphy to defy Nurse Ratched, which was his basic desire, but at the same time do it in a somewhat ethical way that would boost his ego. He lied and said that his two aunts were bringing the men on the trip, but it was actually “two whores from Portland” (225). If Nurse Ratched knew who the women really were, that the men were drinking beer, and having a genuinely good time she would not be pleased. Her entire mission is to subdue their minds and control their everyday activities, but this trip that McMurphy orchestrated is defying

that.
The id of the subconscious describes a person’s basic desire, and has no sense of conscience. Patients on this ward are almost child-like not only because of their mental state, but because of their id. Everything the patients do to defy Nurse Ratched and the staff is controlled by this part of their subconscious. The basic desire of McMurphy’s id is ultimately to destroy Nurse Ratched’s control of the ward. In real life, patients wouldn’t get away with what those in Kesey’s novel got away with, therefore, Kesey explores the vast subconscious of each patient to further the plot of the novel. For example, the simple thought of challenging Nurse Ratched shows how McMurphy’s id completely takes over his actions. Authority isn’t supposed to be tested, but because a person who acts through their id operates like a child before being taught social skills authority is constantly confronted. After performing all of his pranks and being indirectly blamed for William Bibbit’s death McMurphy’s id shows through his actions as he physically attacks Nurse Ratched. He “smashed through that glass door” (318) that essentially protected the Big Nurse. He not only attacked her, but he exposed her after he “ripped her uniform all the way down the front” (319). He finally achieved the basic desire of his id; embarrassing Nurse Ratched in front of everyone and mentally scaring her as she has done to the patients.
Ken Kesey uses the psychoanalytical theory and his life experiences to his advantage by applying them to The One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest to allow the reader to better understand the dynamic characters of the novel. His application to the novel has expanded the meaning of a mental ward and the affect it has on patients it contains. Through unconventional dreams, thoughts hidden deep inside a character’s subconscious, shocking reality of their ego, and childish desires of their id the characters are depicted through Kesey’s vision of a 1960’s Oregon mental ward.