Philisophical debate between Jean-Paul Sartre and Michel Foucault in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Shiraz university

2 Shahid Madani university

Abstract

Jean-Paul Sartre, with the principle of the self-based subject, has confirmed the three humanist principles of freedom, free will and choice on human destiny. Man is free, he is responsible for himself and others, and he has to make a choice. In contrast to this thinking we are faced with the philosophy of Michel Foucault, which emphasizes the microphysics of power with the application af care techniques, control technologies, subjection, subjugation and submission. This research has found with a descriptive-analytical method that the supervisor and three black boys and another employees are Foucault’s representatives. McMurphy, Chief Bromden, Harding and other patients are Sartre’s anxious and sometimes desperate representatives who make choices and actions to achieve freedom. McMurpyh’s dominance over the department is the dominance of Sartre’s thought model over Foucault, and McMurphy’s introduction into the plant category with lobotomy surgery at the order of the supervisor is the dominance of Foucault’s thought model over Sartre. But in the end, by escaping and reaching freedom, Sartre is the winner of the field.

Volume 3, Issue 2
September 2025
Pages 203-227
  • Receive Date: 18 December 2024
  • Revise Date: 05 February 2025
  • Accept Date: 21 April 2025