Electroshock therapy
In order to keep the patients under control, doctors use electroshock therapy on McMurphy, the primary rebel and offender in the ward. He enters the ward after receiving the treatment and pretends to be catatonic and unfeeling, but soon reveals he was only pretending and the therapy had no effect on him. A popular method for treating mental illness in the 1950s and 60s, electroshock treatment was met with a great amount of stigma in the early days of its invention because of the damaging effects it could have on the patient. Electroshock therapy, most simply, simulates a brain seizure in order to reverse the effects of mental unrest.
"Shrunk"
"Shrunk" was a term often used to describe the process of psychoanalysis, particularly in the 1970s. A therapist was often referred to as a "shrink," originally as a kind of pejorative, comparing the process of psychoanalysis to the head shrinking of enemies that was practiced by tribal groups. Chief uses the word "shrunk" when he is telling McMurphy about his father. Chief says his father was "big" and did what he wanted to do, which made everyone want to "work on him." As a result, Chief says his father shrunk himself by drinking.
Lobotomy
McMurphy's ultimate fate, a lobotomy was a surgical incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain that would often leave patients brain-dead and catatonic. It was a way to treat mental illness.
Prison farm
Before McMurphy arrives at the mental institution, he was at a prison farm, an open air facility where convicted criminals would farm or perform some kind of manual labor as penance for their crimes.
"Upstairs"
"Upstairs" is a different part of the institution where more severely ill or "difficult" patients are sent. It is the place where McMurphy is given electroshock therapy, as well as the place where he goes for a lobotomy. It is even more constricting and oppressive than the ward in which McMurphy finds himself.
Chronic
Pertaining to illness, lasting a long time.
Peculiar
Harding tells the men in group therapy that their prodding him makes him feel "peculiar," which they question and appropriate as a euphemism for homosexuality
Queer
Derogatory euphemism for homosexuality
Maryanne
Derogatory euphemism for homosexuality
"Bug up her ass"
McMurphy says he can put a bug up Nurse Ratched's ass, meaning that he can undermine her authority and make her angry.
Beaver
Slang for a woman's vagina.
Cuckoo
A type of bird, also a term for a crazy person.
"Get a grip"
A slang way of telling someone to have more control over their feelings.
Belligerent
Disproportionately aggressive and disruptive.
Statutory rape
Legal term for sexual intercourse with a minor.
Work detail
Manual labor at the hospital.
"the opener"
The first game in a series, in this context referring to the World Series.
Saltpeter
A drug that kills a person's libido.
A rigged game
A situation in which the outcome is determined before the game is even played or an outcome is even discussed.
