In Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, the motif of castration is used to exemplify the fact that women in a position of power have the capacity to emasculate even the most masculine of men, thus contradicting modern societal issues relating to sexism.
Kesey references castration to demonstrate emasculation of the male patients. McMurphy talks to Harding about the idea behind group meetings, and they eventually arrive at the topic of Nurse Ratched. She is then compared to a hen that pecks (59) at them. At first, Harding believes that the Nurse is pecking at their eyes, but McMurphy clarifies that the Nurse is actually pecking right at their "balls.""[.] people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toes the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to [.] thats what the old buzzard is doing, going for your vitals" (60). The Nurse takes advantage of group meetings to weaken the patients by deliberately asking them personally provoking questions. After obtaining the information, the Nurse mentally demoralizes the patients by pecking at the men, utilizing the information to manipulate and distort their psyche. This makes the men feel weaker than her, making it easier for the Nurse to force them into following her orders and living under her control. Its important to note that McMurphy is referencing the men's vitals as the male reproductive organ. Therefore, in the context of the quote, it can be deduced that by going for the balls, a male can be made weak. This concretes Kesey's point regarding the emasculating qualities of the act of castration.
To further emphasize castration as emasculation, Kesey uses the symbolism of lobotomy to represent the ward and the Nurses mental castration of removing the males identity. Cutting off a males reproductive organ deprives him of his physiological vitality. Lobotomy has similar mental or emotional effects; the patient becomes passive, unable to concentrate, and the patients emotional responsiveness decrease drastically.