Girl, Interrupted, By Susanna Kaysen

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

The film “Girl, Interrupted” is a true story adapted from the original memoir by Susanna Kaysen. Set in the 1960s, it relates her experiences during her stay in a mental institution after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder following a suicide attempt. Many films include characters with a mental illness; the actors who play these characters have the immense challenge of staying true to the illness they portray.

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

Individuals who suffer of such disorder are capable of changing their behavior and mindset drastically. For example, if the person is in a relationship they can love and idolize their partner at one instant and completely hate and seek revenge against them, if they feel their partner hurts them. At times, they even try to self-sabotage themselves by attempting to hurt themselves. Their personality characteristics are known to be demanding, intense, aggressive, and even feeling empty an abundant amount of times. Essentially an individual with borderline personality disorder are defined by the word “instability” as their behavior is completely unpredictable and rocky to their experiences (Buss & Larsen, 2001).

Girl, Interrupted provides an in-depth look into Susanna Kaysen’s experience of living with a mental illness and staying in a mental hospital. Twenty-five years after she leaves McLean she learns of her diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and discusses it in her memoir. Kaysen reads about her disorder from the DSM-III-R and views her diagnosis as:

Until the medical breakthroughs that we have made in the modern day, psychology as a science was not fully understood. Modern technology has given us a clearer idea of psychology, but in the past there was less known about the science. This alongside a predominantly male medical discourse led to a medical diagnosis in many women called hysteria. Female hysteria was a medical diagnosis given to specifically women as far back as the ancient Greek civilization. Hysteria started as a supernatural phenomena, but as medicine evolved it would be described as a mental disorder, (Tasca). Hysteria. in actuality, is an absurd and fabricated diagnosis that institutionalized and discriminated countless women. The way it makes a women feel, and the fact that it strips a woman of any sort of free will is a sickening display of blatant misogyny. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman perfectly displays not only the misogyny, but the torture a woman must face trapped under a hysteria diagnosis. Hysteria as a diagnoses fails to effectively treat many women, instead leading to the mistreatment and wrongful institutionalization of women.

Throughout history, mental illness has been labeled as a defining deformity, that harnesses in its “victims,” into a box, parallel to the familiar “mime in a box” image. In a world where we glorify “normality,” a lack of illness, which by all means is a gift, the beauty of one mind takes away from the beauty of an outlier, even though, ironically people may not even recognize their differences. Hester, at a glance suffers from a literal scarlet letter, but an imprint on her brain may exist as well. Irrational actions, sudden emotional episodes, and destructive thoughts can only prevail for so long following sin; Hester’s persona has branches of self-defeating personality disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. No one of her time, however, will bring the issue to light, Hester will be left known as the mistress, a witch, or “A,” rather than to explore her “complicated” condition. As decades pass, Hester’s state will remain, as the “A,” the mark of the stigma on mental illness today. When left neglected, society rejects the possibility that under a visible coating, mental deformities may lie; those who are divergent, who require affection more, are made subordinate, marginalized with no quest for a cure.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

Other symptoms of borderline personality disorder include efforts to avoid abandonment, impulsive behavior, distorted sense of self, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate and intense anger or problems controlling anger, stress related to paranoid thoughts, a pattern of unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones. Mood and emotion are often swinging from extreme dislike or rage andhaving feelings to harm themselves such as cutting themselve out of the world, observing themselves from outside the body and feeling vulnuarable, or losing touch with reality (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). The symptoms can be triggered by minor separations, such as vacations and sudden change of plans (Chapman and Gratz 2013). Chapman and Gratz also stated when an individual has borderline personality disorder they have unstable emotions, one minute the person can feel joyful and then suddenly they can have intense negative emotions. Emotions that are most common and are particularly tough for people with borderline personality disorder includes sadness, shame, loneliness, fear, and anger toward themselves. People with borderline personality disorder often fear rejection and abandonment, especially when it comes to

The main feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image and emotions. People with borderline personality disorder are also usually very impulsive.

“Personality disorders have been documented in approximately 9 percent of the general U.S. population” (Angstman, Rasmussen, 2011). Emotional dysregulation disorder or its common name borderline personality disorder is a very serious and chronic disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) describes borderline personality disorder as “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts” (Gardner, 2006). Within the last 20 years, psychologists and other mental health professionals have made tremendous strides in research on what exactly borderline personality disorder, some of its triggers and possible effective treatment options. Borderline personality disorder is defined as a disorder that generates severe emotional instability which can be a springboard that can lead to other stress induced mental and behavioral problems.

Kay Redfield Jamison, an American clinical psychiatrist, and now writer, who published An Unquiet Mind, had published over 100 academic articles, and chosen by Time magazine as “The Hero of Medicine” (O’Byrne, 1997). She was and still is an incredibly successful women. Jamison has not always felt that to be true. Jamison, who has been diagnosed with manic depressive disorder since she was in high school, but had not really experienced any severe episodes of either mania or depression. Her father, Marshall, also had manic depressive disorder, but he was not treated. His manic episodes lead to extreme spending, and long trips, to this day Kay does not know where to. His illness made for a tough marriage, and interesting family life. While his illness had effected everyone in the family, it was not to be spoken of (Jamison, 1995).

There are some key, unique approaches to mental illness that have been inculcated into the theme of the film. One of these, and most probably the most potent, is the issue of questioning the true existence of mental illness. On repeated occasions, Susanna questions the true validity of her diagnosis. Even at the end of the film, she still questions the effectiveness of her treatment

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious and complex mental disorder involving maladaptive behaviors and multiple symptoms. This disorder often occurs in the context of relationships and can have a chaotic effect not only on the individual with BPD but also on their loved ones. According to the NIMH, “borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by unstable moods, behavior, and relationship”.9 A primary character of BPD is behavioral and emotional dysregulation. These behaviors are difficult

Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness, people tend to experience many symptoms, varying in mood swings, not immune to changes, emotional ties, holding grudges and lashing out. They tend to take everything to the extreme, like all the good and the bad. Most of the times leading to unstable relationships and other problems.