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Dr. Spivey, the head doctor at the institution, explains to McMurphy why he has been admitted from a prison work farm and the prison officials think he has been faking it. The doctor then asks him about his five arrests. McMurphy replies that the fights are okay if a professional does it, but not himself? Then the doctor brings up the rape charge and he simply replies that she was fifteen going on thirty. McMurphy then agrees to cooperate during a period of evaluation, study, and treatment of his "condition" whatever it may be. McMurphy is assigned to the ward supervised by Nurse Mildred Ratched and decides he must battle her, conflicted by her unmanning and aggressive attitude in group therapy sessions toward all of the patients. .
While the non-restricted patients board a field trip bus during a restorative outdoor exercise period, he teaches those left behind, including the Chief, basketball. On the shoulders of Bancini, a quiet confused man, he demonstrates how to dunk the ball in the hoop. With a cool, controlled look, Nurse Ratched views his antics from the ward's window as if to prove herself superior to McMurphy. He then introduces card games to the patients with pornographic cards through gambling by betting cigarettes. .
First with skillful mind games he rebels against correct behavior and the rules of Nurse Ratched, unwilling to grant her power over his life. McMurphy violates one of the principal rules by entering the Nurse's Station to turn down the loud, annoying music. When told he is forbidden, he again makes his inquiry outside the station, but she refuses. .
He calmly asks the assistant Nurse Pilbow about the ingredients of his "horse-pill" medications during one of the compulsory lineups for pill delivery. For his resistance and questioning of the rules, he is accused by the nurses that he is upset. When the nurse offers an alternative method to taking pills orally, McMurphy decides to "take his pill.
