Kesey's book is about counter-culture, all right; but which side is Kesey on? He certainly isn't for women's rights - every female character in his novel is either a monster or a submissive plaything. He doesn't seem to support the Civil rights movement - black Americans in 'One Flew Over...' are represented by the subhuman drooling imbecilic demonic familiars of the Big Witch, and by Mr Tunkle the good-natured but idiotic drunk junky night-shift toilet cleaner. Kesey doesn't seem to be against war - the book's two protagonists, McMurphy and the Chief, are both veterans, proud of their service, and, if anything, slightly sulky and not being treated like heroes.
What gives?

Thematic issues aside, I found the novel too contrived. Nurse Radched is a construct rather than a human being, starting from her name ('Wretched'). She is so manifestly evil and robotic it is impossible to take her seriously. McMurphy himself is far too archetypal. He is too red-blooded (so red-blooded even his pubes are red), too strong, too kind, too superhuman. He is not real. The suicides were not real - they were just plot devices. The whole novel felt as artificial and mechanical as the Chief's perception of the ward - and I don't think this was intentional.
Often the writing is too obvious. Kesey would make a point with some blatant symbolism, and then have the Chief explain exactly what is going on. A good example of this is the scene where McMurphy explains how the nurse has castrated the men.

'One Flew Over...'s strongest aspect is its critique of the psychiatric profession and the way 'mental illness' is perceived and treated in our society. Sane characters like McMurphy and Harding have no place in any psych ward. That they were ever admitted means there is something deeply wrong in the societal definition of 'mental illness' ( http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Szasz/m... ). Based on what I've heard of such places, Kesey seems to successfully capture the dehumanizing, depersonalizing atmosphere of psychiatric wards ( http://web.archive.org/web/2004111717... ).
Furthermore, the clinical treatment of patients, vividly described by Harding, is barbarous, disgusting, and downright insane. I don't understand how anyone can take the psychiatric profession seriously after debacles such as electro-convulsive therapy and lobotomy. Then there are all the pills, with all their side-effects.
Some contend that psychiatry has come a long way since the '60s. I find this view ridiculous - if psychiatrists were so wrong in the '60s, chances are they as wrong now, just in different ways. After all, the current method of 'curing' the countless ill-defined 'mental illnesses', still focuses on pills of questionable therapeutic value and obviously morbid side effects, designed to cure some clinically impossible to detect biological defect. Our society needs to rethink its approach to troubles of the mind. Consider the amount of addicting pills parents and doctors force children to take for no good reason at all. This is a serious matter. ( )

Book about mental illness. ( )

I loved this book. It is a brutal struggle to the end between the Big Nurse and McMurphy, with battles won and lost on both sides. Kesey had a great insight into human psychology of power and domination, of camaraderie and aloneness, of manipulation and abuse. A truly brilliant novel. ( )

One of the better quotes from this book is actually its dedication:

"To Vik Lovell who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs."

We have been told throughout childhood and beyond there are no such things as monsters and demons. But ask anyone who has found themselves on the outside of society’s definition of “normal”, and you will find a fearful world where they really do exist, but not always in the guise of evil wishing to do us harm.

To maintain a healthy community of individuals, society demands that we rarely act like one, and only in a manner that still must conform to some type of moral and ethical standard.

Those finding themselves outside those boundaries are often “judged”, or in this case diagnosed, as needing psychiatric help.

Truly, who gets to define sanity? Where does rationality and irrationality begin and end?

Not to long into this read, you will be asking yourself just that.

Are the patients in this story the truly irrational ones?

Kesey wrote of what he knew. He once worked as a night attendant in a psychiatric ward. This experience led to the writing of this book.

Demons do exist. Those we imagine, and those that we struggle against when trying to maintain that sense of normalcy which is expected of us. Some demons come in the form of those who try to help us, telling us that electric shock treatments, drugs, and even lobotomies are the only way to help us be free of what ails us.

But what if it is all a form of control, a way to keep us all in line - - to keep the status quo?

As Nurse Ratched notes: "A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society . . . because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them."

The men in this novel face such a challenge. Emasculated emotionally and psychologically by their experiences with society, they commit themselves to the one place they thought they would be safe, and hopefully cured. This haven eventually becomes their prison. They become so controlled, so institutionalized, they willingly give up their freedom for this sense of safety.

Emasculation is a strong term, and I am not saying this book is misogynist in nature, but men adversely affected by domineering women is a strong theme throughout and helps in understanding what the characters have experienced and their difficulty in standing up for themselves against Nurse Ratched.

Along comes a man to show them that there is a potential for them to do so. Randle Patrick McMurphy, "[a]. . . boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, [he] rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched."

But this defiance does not go unanswered. It is frightening knowing about the truth which lies behind the story Kesey tells. To anyone who has seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. Having never seen the film, this book and its ending was more powerful than I can relate.

The strongest impression I am left with is one I have made note of on my white board. Even when he knows he will fail, McMurphy still tries in order to show the others that one’s will can never be broken — only given away.

This book has been challenged many times due to strong language and discussions of sexuality. However, I cannot find that any of what I read was obscene in any form or fashion.

In fact, I would make this a must read on many, of not all High School curricula.

If like me, you have never seen the movie, I urge you to read the book first. If you have seen it, and never read the novel – please do.

This will be one of those books that will have a permanent place in my personal library. I don’t know if I can give it a higher recommendation than that. ( )

I love both this book and the film. ( )