Needs In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest: Understanding Natural Needs

“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn't try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn't need others' approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her” (Lao Tzu). In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest there is multiple issues the character’s face that negatively reflect their own self worth. Every individual feels the need to control people, situations, or even their own emotions. This undenying need to succeed if not dealt with in a healthy manner can cause a compulsive need to take over everything and everyone. touches upon how each person experiences moments where they feel like an outsider and do not fit in with the world around

This is why the need to succeed is for some the only way to get by and for others the only thing they know. They have been taught from a young age that being able to control people and situations is to have power. This is why something as simple as doing well in life can quickly turn into wreaking havoc on their peers to climb higher up on the chain. One of the most important characters in the book, Randle McMurphy unknowingly thrives off his need to hold more power over Nurse Ratched and completely take over the lives of the other patients. “She saw that McMurphy was growing bigger… She figured the guys could see from themselves then that he could be as vulnerable as the next man. He couldn’t continue in his hero roll if he was sitting in the day room all the time in a shock stupor”(Kesey 291). As smart of a patient McMurphy was he let his fear of failure cloud his better judgement and turn into, for lack of a better word, raging lunatic who causes destruction to the fundamental dynamic of the ward. His unwillingness to accept being mediocre and not winning against this nurse brought down the mental health of everyone. The opposing partner is Nurse Ratched with the power-struggle dynamic between her and McMurphy, though The Nurse has been taking over the ward with a sense of entitlement way before McMurphy was even in the picture. “Nurse Ratched is notorious

A valid example of how feeling like an outsider can make someone detach themselves from society in an unhealthy manner is seen when Chief Bromden a bulk towering fellow discussed why he became mute, “I … thought it over, about my being deaf, about the years of not letting on I heard what was said, and I wonder if I can ever act any other way again. But I remembered one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all” (Kesey 209-210). Before Bromden was in the psychiatric ward men from the government had come to his home to buy the land, but when seeing that he was the only one there they spoke amidst themselves pretending he was not even there. After this experience Bromden, a very intelligent, strong-willed man completely shut down from the world to the point where he no longer speaks and acts almost as if he were an inhabited body. All because his large stature and Indian ethnicity made him an outlier compared to what was deemed normal by these men. If Bromden had accepted the ignorance of those who treated him as deaf and dumb only because they were scared of the unusual he would not have been seen as a Chronic on the floor, he could have been considered more of an