چکیده (انگلیسی):

Considering Louis Althusser’s inquiries into the function of ideology in sustaining power, the writers of this article
discuss the operation of ideological and repressive apparatuses in the asylum Ken Kesey portrays in One Flew over the
Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). The novel recounts the story of a group of people contained in an institution that is supposed to
treat their allegedly mental problems, whereas under the facade of psychiatric treatment lies a ruthless controlling
system whose major purpose is to turn the inmates into obedient, submissive “subjects”. The agents of the institution
preserve the patients’ docility through strict rules besides the so-called mental therapy that actually results in more
confusion in inmates who consequently lose their self-consciousness and self-confidence. But since every ideological
system, besides inducing docile “subjects,” raises a sort of resistanceamong them, gradually resisting forces are formed
in the asylum of the novel by the coming of a new inmate who defies the dominant ideology of the institution. By his
jovial, life-affirming ideology, he breathes new life into others, makes them think and believe in themselves and trust
each other, and thereby acts as a source of inspiration for several inmates, specially the Indian American narrator of the
novel that subsequently challenges his schizophrenia, and finally, when his friend is shocked by electrical devices as the
result of which he totally loses his consciousness, smashes the control panel of the ward to escape from that
penitentiary.