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By RICHARD DeVAUL, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry, Texas A&M
For ABCNEWS
"…one flew east, one flew west,
one flew over the cuckoo's nest."
So starts the famous book chronicling our mental health system in the 1950s, best known for Jack Nicholson's portrayal of a sane but wild inmate in the Oscar-winning film adaptation. This pop culture phenomenon featured every possible psychiatric condition and outcome, including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, use of mind-altering medications, forced lobotomies and suicide.