The power of manipulation is a very powerful tool and can easily be misused to benefit the person using it, while harming the people who are subject to its effects. If unchecked, a large group can be controlled by a single person. Much of this manipulation was seen through nations seeking to control populations, such as in Germany during World War II, in order to maintain an illusion. The manipulation used by Nurse Ratched and McMurphy in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is used primarily to benefit themselves, while harming other patients. This causes harmful events to be repeated later on other patients. Nurse Ratched gains much of her power through her manipulation of patients on the ward. One tactic it uses is through disclosure of patents' personal information. While group therapy sessions are supposed to bring patients' problems out into the open for others to help, everyone turns into a "bunch of chickens at a pecking party." (Kesey 57) The nurse manipulates the patients into revealing many of their personal secrets. They do this because of the fear Nurse Ratched developed during her years on the ward. This is counterproductive to patients' recovery from the ward to a normal life outside the ward. Instead, the information is used to keep patients under his complete control, taking away their sense of power and, ultimately, their very manhood. A direct consequence of this maneuver was the loss of control of old Pete who, after exclaiming "I'm tired" several times, (Kesey 51) finally ran over one of the black boys who were trying to take him to bed. Ratched also u...... middle of paper ......r to increase one's position in the department in several ways. McMurphy tries to improve his financial situation, while Nurse Ratched tries to impose her totalitarian rule on the ward. Their mutual actions have negative consequences for the other patients on the ward. While many lose a portion of their life savings, others feel growing nurse strain as more drastic measures are taken to screen patients. One of these methods even leads to the death of the patient. This leads to the assumption that both Nurse Ratched and McMurphy are not acting completely in the patient's best interest and each of them is committing these actions primarily to benefit themselves. Works Cited Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Signet, 1962. Print.