Defense Mechanisms In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

When put in stress inducing situations, humans often use coping or defense mechanisms to deal with their surroundings. Some may turn to negative entities, while others seek spiritual guidance. Author Ken Kesey does an excellent job illustrating a handful of different types of coping and defense mechanisms through the ward patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The characters in this story have a variety of mental disorders, causing them to react differently to everyday situations— as compared to the average human being. Due to these disorders, the ward patients would be more likely to resort to coping/defense mechanisms than others, thus, coping/defense mechanisms play a very important role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Throughout

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest coping and defense mechanisms can be easily picked out. A prime example of this is Cheswick. Cheswick plays an interesting role in the story and it is clear that he is deeply conflicted. The coping mechanism that he relies on is subordination and a need for approval from his superiors. The first example of this is during the group meeting in which McMurphy demands a vote on whether or not they should be allowed to watch the World Series. Cheswick immediately comes to McMurphy’s aid by voting for him even when nobody else did. Throughout the rest of the story Cheswick, in a sense, “kisses up” to McMurphy through means of personality mirroring. Later in the story, however, when McMurphy hangs Cheswick out to dry, Cheswick drowns himself (Kesey 133). This influential event would not have occurred if Cheswick did not rely so heavily on approval from his superiors, and therefore would not have happened if coping mechanisms were not present in Cheswick’s life.

A more influential and recognizable defense mechanism depicted in this story can be seen in the incendiary character named Randle Patrick McMurphy. McMurphy is a provocateur, a ring leader, and above all else, a defier. McMurphy uses his radical, defiant views as a defense mechanism to maintain his “tough guy” image. I believe that McMurphy’s true fear is becoming a follower. In order to suppress these feelings, he fights against the staff at the hospital, hating the control that they have over him. McMurphy uses psychological, and at times physical tactics in an attempt to undermine the staffs’ authority and create a following of his own.

Finally we come to Big Chief, the narrator of the story.

Big Chief’s defense mechanism may not necessarily affect what actually goes on in the ward, rather, how he perceives the ward. This changes how the reader views of the ward as well, considering Big Chief is recounting the story. The mechanism chief uses, or better put, abuses is creating a barrier. He creates a barrier of silence and sinks into it as deep as he can. Moreover, he lets the barrier control him, and carry him through his life dull life. The barrier is best represented by the fog. The fog surrounds him, and becomes more and more present throughout the book. This is likely because throughout the book, daily life at the ward becomes more and more chaotic. As order in the ward begins to retard, Chief simply retreats farther back behind his barrier. This can be seen when chief lets the fog completely take him, and at one point he even lets the fog carry him around the room (Kesey 102-108). Chief doesn’t want to believe that he likes the fog, and therefore blames the fog on Big Nurse, but subconsciously chief takes comfort in the fog, and eventually stops fighting it.

Coping and defense mechanisms play a very important role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Without these mechanisms present, the plot of the story would be drastically different. They can be seen in key characters including Cheswick, McMurphy, and Big Chief, who play important roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although said mechanisms are

unhealthy, they add to the story and create a better more relatable plotline.