One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

#502 – Psychiatry, Insane Asylums, Mental Illness, ECT, Lobotomies, Freud & Jung

Lex Fridman Podcast, 17 September 2026. The book comes up at 1 hr 2 min in.

Andrew Scull and Lex Fridman discuss how Ken Kesey's novel and its film adaptation shaped public perception of ECT and lobotomy. Scull notes the film's dramatic rendering of ECT did not reflect 1970s practice but echoed earlier abuses, and that the lobotomy scene fixed these images in public memory. Both speakers observe the book and film differ in perspective and focus. Scull recalls that by 2015 virtually every 19- and 20-year-old in his film class had seen the movie.

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