The novel “One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey is one that was designed by a countercultural movement to address various issues that face our society. The main themes that are clearly portrayed in the novel are those of individuality and societal oppression. The novel has also expressed the vagueness that is there when it comes to distinguishing insanity and sanity (Clare 6). The novel is written in the setting of a mental institution and the characters are a mixture of the sane and the insane. To determine the mental status of a character, one must take a close look at their behavior and their personality. This can only be done by evaluating how a character views themselves and others, how he or she behaves, how he or she interacts with other people among other characteristics that define the character. This paper will take a closer look at the character Randal Patrick McMurphy, and why his words and actions portray him as a person suffering from mental insanity. The present behavior of an individual is vital for making a psychiatric diagnosis of an individual (Rosenhan 27). It is important to evaluate the behavior of the character to conclude about the characters mental health. The character seems to make an effort to be different from the other patients in the mental institution. On his admission he admits to be a gambling psychopath, calls himself “bull goose loony” (Kesey, 69) then shortly after says that is not crazy and if he was he did not know about it. This constant erratic thought process is one of the factors that portray the character as insane. He also complains that everyone he meets on realizing his need to be different tells him that he must follow a certain set of rules. His mental health seems to be questionable, first because he seems to enjoy greatly his unfortunate situation. This is not the reaction that you would expect from any other person. Second, he does not seem to notice the insanity of anyone else in the mental hospital and he thinks that all of them will be released within a short period. Other instances of insanity are seen when he takes the challenge upon himself to break a nurse who he clearly knows has a lot of power in the institution. Manipulation is another common character trait of psychopaths. The character Randal is portrayed as a manipulator. He knows that the nurse would be embarrassed with h