Before Milo&353; Forman & Jack Nicholson took it to the wider cinematic world, One Flew Over The Cuckoo&8217;s Nest stood proud as Ken Kesey&8217;s masterpiece study of human behaviour in an Oregon psychiatric hospital. For all the film&8217;s qualities, Kesey&8217;s novel gave more humanity to the characters & let them lead the plot, rather than the situation lead experience of the film. Either way, the pathos that Kesey injected, drawing on his own experiences as a mental health hospital orderly make One Flew Over The Cuckoo&8217;s Nest one of the great works of 20th Century American literature.