Competency and Psychiatry Ethics: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Abstract

When you ask psychiatrists about films they find useful in teaching about their profession, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which won several academy awards, including Best Picture, is still a classic that makes their list. Based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of the same name, this film is about a prisoner malingering as “insane” who is sent to a psychiatric hospital in Oregon (where the film was shot) to be assessed for competency.