Film Analysis: Girl Interrupted

Deviance is an act that goes against the social norms such as rules or expectations. It can be something small such as running through the stop signs or it can be something big such as hijacking an airplane. Deciding if the act is deviant or not depends on the context (society, environment, etc.). According to Howard S. Becker, it is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act that, makes something deviant. Deviance is not a word that is used for judging people, but it is used to refer to an act to which people respond negatively. Norms vary among different cultural groups, therefore, one deviant act in one group might not be deviant to another. For example, it will be considered deviant or going against the norm if someone decided to

Deviance as a word refers to any behavior regarded as odd or unacceptable. However, from a sociological point of view, deviance refers to any action or behavior that runs contrary to social norms (Macionis and Gerber 200). This includes crimes, which are violations of formally enacted rules, as well as violation of the socially accepted norms. Norms refer to the rules as well as the expectations that guide the conventional behavior of human beings (Macionis and Gerber 204). Thus, deviant acts arise from non-conformance with these norms. Deviance is relative, to both the time and the place. This is because an act that may appear deviant in a particular context may not be deviant in another. For example, fighting at school is a deviant behavior,

The shutdown of state mental hospitals and lack of available financial and institutional resources force mentally ill people to the United States Judicial System for mental health. Every year thousands of people are arrested for various crimes and they are sent to jail. Sixteen percent of these people have some type of mental health problem (Public Broadcasting System , 2001). When we consider that the United States has the largest incarcerated population in the world at 2.2 million, this number is staggering (Anasseril E. Daniel, 2007). This is about 1% of the entire population of the United States. There are many reasons as to why the situation has taken such a bad turn and when the history of the treatment of mental illness is examined one can see how the situation developed into the inhumane disaster it is today.

The treatment of mental illness has gone through many reforms over the years. Stemming from some of the earliest documented cases of treatment such as trephination in 5000 B.C. to the opening of “mental” asylums starting in the late 1300s to the development of the modern healthcare system. Through the 1800s until now, major developments in mental health treatment include the evolution of the “mental” asylum, widespread psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy treatments. Primarily focusing on the treatment methods of the past two hundred or so years, the United States of America has made leaps and bounds to provide humane treatment to aid those in need.

“Cold, shiny, hard, plastic.”, one of the most popular quotes from the movie, Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and screenplay by Tina Fey. This film is loosely based on a book called “Queen Bees and Wannabees” by Rosalind Wiseman which is a self-help book that describes all of the cliques in high school and how they can have a huge effect on girls. But the movie itself is about the sociopolitical climate of the average American “high school”. The movie was made in 2004 and set in Evanston, Illinois, but the film was shot in Toronto, Canada. The film stars Lindsey Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and many more comedic actors and actresses. I chose to do an analysis on the movie, Mean Girls, because I wanted to see if people would agree with my perspective, which is that this movie does correctly show the real life mean girl situations and how girls can overcome the popularity contests.

Throughout the Great Depression, there were great strides in discovering the science behind mental illness and the treatment of the mentally ill. Scientists tried many new treatments to help people with mental illnesses. Early in the 1900s researchers started to explore what caused a person to become mentally ill. In this time period, Sigmund Freud “developed a number of theories that attempted to explain unusual behavior” (“Mental Health Treatment”). People with mental illnesses were treated more like equivalents as opposed to inferiors starting in the early 20th century. Mental hospitals, formerly called asylums started to have specialist doctors and nurses to treat mental and physical disabilities. (Warwick). The villa system was introduced to mental hospitals in the early 1900s. This was a system in which several buildings were used to keep and treat patients rather than one large building to help individualize treatments (Warwick). Later, scientists tried using lithium and antipsychotic drugs to treat mental illnesses like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and to some extent had success. (“Mental Health Treatment”). The few people who sought treatment in mental facilities had a chance to be cured and treated for their diseases because of new scientific developments (Roosevelt).

Deviance is defined as the fact or state of departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior. There are many different forms of deviance in today 's society. Something that is viewed as being deviant in one culture might be seen as normal in another. There are many different types and theories in which define deviance, however their are 3 broad categories, these 3 categories are positivist, relativist, and critical conceptions of deviance. These 3 categories are important in defining deviance because they break down deviance as a whole and better help understand the different acts in which we label as being deviant. Deviance as a whole is important to study especially in today 's society with their

For centuries societies have been superstitious and afraid towards mental illness; mainly due to a lack of knowledge. While there were “cures and treatments” for individuals that were deemed insane many were sent to either prisons or asylums. The conditions of these facilities were unsanitary, the physical and sexual abuse was frequent, and the staff was not properly trained to care for patients. Patients were also chained, caged, or restrained to beds in rooms that were often unheated.

The mentally ill were cared for at home by their families until the state recognized that it was a problem that was not going to go away. In response, the state built asylums. These asylums were horrendous; people were chained in basements and treated with cruelty. Though it was the asylums that were to blame for the inhumane treatment of the patients, it was perceived that the mentally ill were untamed crazy beasts that needed to be isolated and dealt with accordingly. In the opinion of the average citizen, the mentally ill only had themselves to blame (Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, 1999). Unfortunately, that view has haunted society and left a lasting impression on the minds of Americans. In the era of "moral treatment", that view was repetitively attempted to be altered. Asylums became "mental hospitals" in hope of driving away the stigma yet nothing really changed. They still were built for the untreatable chronic patients and due to the extensive stay and seemingly failed treatments of many of the patients, the rest of the society believed that once you went away, you were gone for good. Then the era of "mental hygiene" began late in the nineteenth century. This combined new concepts of public health, scientific medicine, and social awareness. Yet despite these advancements, another change had to be made. The era was called "community mental health" and

At the beginning of the film/movie, it started with the ant colony picking and providing food for the grasshoppers. They operate by traditional agricultural labor. This film/movie shows an illustration of an economy that relies on the workers to do the labor because there is a scarcity of resources so they need to maintain the amount of food for the colony. This economy is based on a traditionalist economy. They stick to the way things have been for quite some time. There was never any thought of doing anything new because that could cause a huge amount of risk when it comes disrupting the way things have been smoothly running. The ants in the movie run/work off a rank system. Depending on their rank depends on what they do. There is the queen

The movie, Girl, Interrupted, displays Susanna Kaysen’s eighteen-month stay at a mental institute in the 1960s. This film was an adaptation of a book based on a true story of the main character and author Susanna Kaysen. Susanna was checked into Claymore, a psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts, after chasing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka. At first, Susanna denies this blatant attempt at suicide and constantly struggles with uncertainty of her thoughts and emotions. Although Girl, Interrupted exhibits several mental disorders one of the most prevalent disorder of this film is Susanna’s Borderline Personality Disorder. This film depicts majority of the signs and symptoms of a person with Borderline Personality. As stated in the textbook, “the lives of persons with borderline personality are marked by instability. Their relationships are unstable, their behavior is unstable, their emotions are unstable, and even their images of themselves are unstable” (Larsen and Buss 593). Susanna’s romantic relationships are extremely unstable and she frequently engages in casual sex. She jumps from one guy to another in a matter of few weeks. One scene that establishes this the most is when her boyfriend at the time comes to visit her at Claymore and expresses his true feelings for her and she instantly withdraws. He asked her to go to Canada with him and she turns him down immediately. She also kisses Lisa who she befriends at the mental institute, displaying a switch of

Deviant behavior is something that is usually disapproved and it is when someone goes against the ‘norms’ of society. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2015), mental illness is technically a health condition involving changes in behavior, emotion, or thinking. So where does mental illness come in to play with being a deviant behavior? Well, shockingly mental illness and deviance go hand in hand quite often. Everyone who is considered a ‘deviant’ may not be mentally ill, however, majority of people diagnosed with a mental illness are considered deviant. When sociologists study deviance, they are also studying mental illness. Mental illness is something that clearly will imply some sort of deviation from the defined norms of society.

Deviance is the behavior and the standards of expectations of a group or society. It is also behavior that is considered dangerous, threatening or offensive. The people that are deviant are often labeled to be weirdos, oddballs, or creeps. In the United States, people with tattoos, drug addicts, alcoholics, and compulsive gamblers are all considered deviant. Sociologists believe that everybody is deviant from time to time. They believe each person will violate a social norm in certain situations. People are considered deviant if they don't stand for the national anthem at a sports event, dress casually to a fancy restaurant, or skip classes. One category of deviance is Crime. Crime is a violation of norms

In the movie Girl, Interrupted the plot surrounds a period in the life of Susanna Kaysen played by Winona Ryder who was institutionalized at the Claymore mental hospital in the 1960s. In the movie, the main character Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and undergoes treatment to which at the end of the movie she is released. It is at this hospital that Susanna encounters many other patients of which she shares many experiences with. One of these patients was the longtime resident and popular amongst all the other patients Lisa Rowe played by Angelina Jolie whom Susanna became close with and would mid-movie escape the hospital with to only return on her own and find that Lisa would be back a few days later. Lisa, while being the protagonist of the movie, was very charismatic in her own way and based on her behavior and revelation in the movie is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, particularly a sociopath in the movie.

Girl, Interrupted is a captivating and striking film about the struggle of coming to terms with mental health and overcoming personal obstacles to allow treatment and support. While the main character Susanna Kaysen stays in the Claymoore psychiatric hospital, she is introduced to a whole new world, one where she is forced to confront the fact that she has a mental illness and needs professional help.