Bromden describes Ratched as being like a machine, and her behavior fits this description: even her name is reminiscent of a mechanical tool, sounding li… Sarah Paulson's Nurse Ratched is very different to the classic 'One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest' character.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962, Ken Kesey introduced Nurse Mildred Ratched, the domineering administrative head of the psychiatric ward at Salem State Hospital.

A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched represents the oppressive mechanization, dehumanization, and emasculation of modern societyin Bromdens words, the Combine.

Her nickname is Big Nurse, which sounds like Big Brother, the name used in George Orwells novel 1984 to refer to an oppressive and all-knowing authority. Nurse Ratched appears in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey which was later adapted into a critically acclaimed film starring Jack Nicholson.