overview
The purpose of this website is to summarize the conclusions of my research on mental hospitals and institutions compared to how they are represented in the novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
In the time period this novel was written in, mental hospitals and the psychiatric field were beginning to go through reform and changes. The main antagonist in the novel, Nurse Ratched, fights against these changes in order to keep strict control of her patients. I started by researching the history of mental institutions, psychiatric care, and the author's background and the sources i used range from articles from Psychology associations to actual interviews with the author of the novel. Comparing my research to Kesey's depictions of a mental hospital lead me to conclude that the novel shows plausible accuracy for a mental hospital in the 1960's.