GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993) 1. Author: Susanna Kayson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948 where she still lives. She is the author of books which are in some parts related to her personal experiences. She worked as a free-lance editor and proof reader until an introduction to an agent set her career in motion. Her novels: The novel that caught the agent's attention, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987 and people were very interested in
One popular cultural myth about the mentally ill is the archetype of the "Sexy Crazy Girl", which we've seen in movies, comic books, and music. Losing your grip with reality is not a glamorous subject, but that's not what you get from Girl, Interrupted. It is apparent that all the girls in the movie had some type of dysfunctional personality, and bad things happen to some of them, but it just did not seem realistic. First off, most of the patients prtrayed were young, which made the care facility
One popular cultural myth about the mentally ill is the archetype of the "Sexy Crazy Girl", which we've seen in movies, comic books, and music. Losing your grip with reality is not a glamorous subject, but that's not what you get from Girl, Interrupted. It is apparent that all the girls in the movie had some type of dysfunctional personality, and bad things happen to some of them, but it just did not seem realistic. First off, most of the patients prtrayed were young, which made the care
The main character in Susanna Kaysen’s, “Girl, Interrupted” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” are similar in the fact that they both were suppressed by male dominants. Be it therapist or physicians who either aided in their mental deformities or created them. They are similar in the sense that they are both restricted to confinement and must endure life under the watchful eye of overseers. However similar their situations may be, their responses are different. In
In the movie Girl Interrupted its plot occurs in the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen played by Winona Ryder is an eighteen-year-old girl who finds herself in Claymoore Hospital following an OD. Susanna talks to the psychiatrist and tells her of the delusions she’s been having. She had also been having an affair with the husband of her parents' friend. The Psychiatrist suggests that combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka was a suicide attempt. Susana denies this and he recommends a brief period
Susanna Kaysen's Journal-Memoir, Girl, Interrupted Sane or normal people have wondered at one time or another what it is like in a hospital that houses the insane. Susanna Kaysen opens the door to the reality and true insanity of being a patient in a mental hospital renowned for famous ex-patients, including Ray Charles Sylvia Plath, and James Taylor in her book, Girl, Interrupted. She stays focused on reality and her idea of perception as well as the friendships she acquires in her two
Girl Interrupted is Susanna Kaysen 's memoir a series of recollections and reflections of her nearly two year stay at a residential psychiatric program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She looks back on it with a sense of surprise. In her memoir she considers how she ended up at McLean, and whether or not she truly belonged there. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of her experience. Founded in the late 19th century, McLean Hospital had been a facility for troubled members of wealthy
Ali Cox Psych 350 Steve Illardi 15 November 2012 Applied Paper For this applied paper I chose to read the novel Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. In her biography she writes about her time at McLean Hospital, a residential psychiatric facility in Massachusetts. She tells about the experiences she had there, the people that she met, and most importantly her diagnosis; Borderline Personality Disorder. Through reading her novel I was able to see what caused her diagnosis, the symptoms that
medical conditions and impairments once considered stigmatic” (Couser 43). Essentially, an autopathography tells a story of a life concerning a medical condition and seeks to spread awareness on said condition. “Girl, Interrupted” by Susanna Kaysen is a memoir telling the story of a young girl taken to a psychiatric hospital in the late 60s. The memoir was published in 1993 and continues to have an impact due to its descriptions of mental illness. By analyzing the memoirist’s descriptions of her time
John Larkins novel, The Pause follows Declan O’Malley, a depressed 17-year-old and his life after attempting suicide. On the other hand, James Mangold’s 1999 film, Girl, Interrupted tells the story of 17-year-old Susanna Kaysen and the way she deals with being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder after a failed suicide attempt, and being placed in an institution. Both texts are focus on around the effects that mental health has on teenagers. The two texts explore the three themes of support