One FLEW OVER the CUCKOO's NEST is a novel by Ken Kesey, first published in 1962. It tells the story of a group of patients in an Oregon psychiatric hospital and their interactions with the tyrannical Nurse Ratched. The term ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST has a four letter solution of NEST, which is a structure built by certain animals to hold their eggs or young. In the novel, the CUCKOO's NEST symbolizes the oppressive environment of the mental institution and the struggle of the patients to break free from it.