Ken Kesey and his Experience with Drugs

(Cobra, 2014)

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would have never seen the light of the day” (Andrews, 2016).

Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was a very interesting man. He considered himself a great leader “of the counterculture and beat generation” (Cobra, 2014). He was born September 17, 1935, and he, from a young age, loved reading and boxing/wrestling. He went to further his education at Standford University, and later he married Faye Haxby (Cobra, 2014); (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019).

https://nancysyogurt.com/our-creamery/history/

As Kesey grew older, he “experienced a dramatic life change,” where he took place in experiments (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019). These experiments where Psychedelic drug experiments known as “Project MKUlta” (Andrews, 2016). Kesey took many different psychedelic drugs including but not limited to LSD, cocaine, and mushrooms. These drugs are have said to played a major role in his life, altering who he was and what he wrote about (Andrews, 2016); (Cobra, 2014); (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019).

(Andrews, 2016).

After being a “medical guinea pig,” and sometimes participating in the sometimes illegal “Project MKUlta,” the author produced his first and most well-known work, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s, (Andrews, 2016). Many of the ideas from the story came from parts on the MKUlta Project. Kesey continued these experiments later into his life, even after completing the writing of OFOCN (Andrews, 2016).

Works Cited

Andrews, S. (2016, December 20). Ken Kesey was Part of Psychedelic Drug Experiment. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/12/20/ken-kesey-was-part-of-psychedelic-drugs-experiments-before-he-wrote-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/

Corba, L. (2014, September 15). Ken Kesey, Writer of the Counterculture and Beat Generation. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/ken-kesey

Ken Kesey Biography. (2019). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Ka-M/Kesey-Ken.html

Cheeking Pills

“I got away once holding one of those same red capsules under my tongue, played like I’d swallowed it, and crushed it open later in the broom closet” (Kesey, 1962, p. 35).

Cheeking, “concealing a medication in the mouth,” is a way for not taking a pill while still going unnoticed (“Cheeking,” 2009). There are many reasons a patient would “cheek” their medicine. Often times, especially in Psychiatric Wards, patients may have great anxiety as to what the pills they are taking and what they might do. They will sometimes try to avoid taking the drug out of fear, misunderstanding, mistrust, worry, depression, or even out of curiosity (“8 Reasons Patients Don’t Take Their Medications,” 2015).

http://nursing-skills.blogspot.com/2013/12/procedure-of-administering-oral.html

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are many patients that show they do not want to take the medicine they are being asked to take. Chief Bromden cheeks his red pill once to see it later, but he is still unable to find out what it is, and why he must take it. He also tries to avoid taking the red pill in other ways such as pretending to be asleep when the nurses come to give it to him.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/148389033@N02/30150887170

In Kesey’s novel, the Psychiatric Ward Chief Bromden was in was very corrupted and messed up. Many patients had good reasoning as to why they would not want to take the medicines they were being given. It is actually an ethical issue according to Dr. Clarance Braddock, who wrote about the ethics behind giving information about the medicine being administered in “Truth-telling and Withholding Information.” “There are two main situations in which it is justified to withhold the truth from a patient:” “compelling evidence that disclosure will cause real and predictable harm” or “the patient him- or herself states an informed preference not to be told the truth” (Braddock, 2011). Neither of those were the reason for the nurses not telling the patients truely what medicine they were taking. So, they had every right to try and avoid taking those drugs.

https://www.ausmed.com/articles/when-a-patient-refuses-assistance/

Works Cited

Braddock, C. H. (2011, April 11). Truth-telling and Withholding Information. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/truth.html

Cheeking. (n.d.) Medical Dictionary. (2009). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cheeking

8 Reasons Patients Don’t Take their Medications. (2015, October 16). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/patient-support-advocacy/8-reasons-patients-dont-take-their-medications