On September 17, 1935, Ken Kesey was born on a farm in the town of La Junta, Colorado. Kesey was raised in a religious household that had a great appreciation for Christian morals and values. He enjoyed hearing many Christian fables when he was young and was also a firm believer in the Christian ethical system. Eventually, he moved with his family to another farm in Springfield, Oregon and spent most of his early years hunting, fishing, swimming, wrestling, and playing football. Kesey was a champion wrestler that set long-standing state records in Oregon while

Kesey did extensive research at the ward for his book and even subjected himself to electro-shock therapy (Liukkonen). Electro-shock therapy or electroconvulsive therapy was developed in the 1930s to help cure psychiatric patients. A current of electricity would be passed through the forehead to cause a seizure similar to epilepsy. Electro-shock therapy produces dramatic improvements in many psychiatric symptoms, especially depression. This technique is also used to help prevent patients from committing suicide. The treatment was very successful most of the time, and it is still used even today, but only as a last resort when no other options remain.

The book is about mental patients in a hospital ward who are under the control of a malicious woman named Nurse Ratched. Things begin to change when a new patient named Randall P. McMurphy is admitted from a prison work farm. McMurphy does not like to follow the Nurse’s rules and he tries to defy her throughout the book. There is a struggle for control over the ward between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. Kesey uses the character of McMurphy to utilize the importance of being free from authority. McMurphy is always telling the other patients how they should try to live more freely and they should be treated like normal people instead of children. The patients are normal people just like everyone else, except they are a little more individualized than society is willing to accept. Kesey shows through McMurphy that the government should not be able to control people like they do because it is manipulative and deceiving.

When it was first used, some patients suffered fractures while having convulsions. This problem was later reduced when doctors started using muscle-relaxing drugs to avoid fractures and by anesthetizing the patients so they didn’t feel the shock. One of the biggest problems with E.S.T. was memory loss, which is why it remains one of the most controversial treatments in psychiatry (“Electroconvulsive Therapy”). Kesey discusses electro-shock therapy in great detail throughout the novel and tries to make the reader understand what the experience is like. At one part in the novel, Harding is explaining to McMurphy what the treatments feel like and what side effects occur afterwards.

While testing the drugs, Kesey was asked to keep a journal of his experiences and the effects of the drugs. Taking the drugs fundamentally altered Kesey both personally and professionally. While attending Stanford, Kesey lived at Perry Lane that was a bohemian community in the town of Palo Alto. He became notorious for throwing spectacular parties while he lived here. At most of these parties certain chemicals would mysteriously find their way into the punch bowl that everyone drank out of (“Biography of Ken Kesey”). Everyone always had a good time while they were there because they were either high or saw hallucinations.

It’s a…button, pushed, says Air Raid Air Raid, turns me on so loud it’s like no sound, everybody yelling at me, hands over t

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