One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

This book causes a number of problems both for contemplation and for discussion which make it inappropriate for a high school text:

Mental Health Treatment - The book stresses an adversarial theme between patients and their caregivers and in fact creates hysteria over this issue. One community reviewer, an M.D., puts it this way: "This is a reduction of the mental health profession to the level of the brainwashing of a POW camp." This story depends on preying on the helplessness of patients and thereby creates a scene of victimization that is only faced with the weapon of cynical rebelliousness.

The Friendship Factor - This is another book which presents the ultimate act of friendship as being able to kill your friend to protect him from facing the consequences of life. As one reviewer put it, "That this man’s recovery leads him to murder [his best friend] is unsettling, to say the least."

Normalizing abnormal behavior - Sneaking girls onto the floor of the mental institution and finding drugs to imbibe in order to arrange an overnight party implies that this would be normal behavior for normal people if they weren’t incarcerated. The uses of pornographic playing cards and slang talk add to the impression that obsessive sexual activity is normal.

Promotion of poor attitudes - In this book bad behavior can have good consequences. Here we learn that addictive behavior, like gambling, can provide a good escape from unfair oppression. It tells us that rebellion to authority can bring healing. Bad behavior and poor decision making are justified for the sake of rebellion and rebellion is justified as being the cause of good heath. The rebellious attitude is glorified and made to appear good so that the hurt and destruction done to people during the story becomes incidental or otherwise blamed on the authorities rather than on the rebellious. Even suicide is minimized and murder is normalized for the sake of justifying rebellion.

Prejudices created - The only women depicted in the book are the Nurse Rachet and the whores, but they are all controlling, sadistic and "castigating" females. Mental health professionals are demonized. A lying, stealing, sex addicted, "smart-mouthed," criminal is made a hero.

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