Social Norms In Girl Interrupted

Diagnosing an individual with a mental illness balances on a fine line between giving a life-long label and misdiagnosing. Mental illness is best viewed on a continuum allowing for a varying degree of severity. In the field, mental health professionals are faced with determining what signifies the appropriateness of diagnosing a mental illness. A professional’s judgment is impacted by their personal perceptions and observations, societies views and norms, and the patient’s history. The film, “How Mad Are You? A Search for Insanity” demonstrates the difficulties in distinguishing those who are mentally ill from those seen as healthy ( ). I will explore my reactions and thoughts regarding the participants’ experience as well as the mental health professionals. Additionally, I will share how this information is applicable to my future career in the field of social work.

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 focused on an eighteen year old girl by the name Susanna that was admitted into a private mental hospital after being accused of a suicidal attempt. The movie follows Susanna on her journey in the institution as she encounters women with different admittance stories. The one who intrigues Susanna the most is Lisa. Lisa is thought to be a sociopath with the way she manipulates those around her to get her way. She is constantly in and out of the institution causing those around to fear, yet admire her. My main focus will be on Lisa and although it was not specified in the film just how old she is, she seemed to be around the same age group as Susanna. This means that, according to Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages, she is on stage five or six. Stage five happens during adolescence where ones primary task is their identity versus their own role in society whereas stage six happens in young adulthood and one faces intimacy versus isolation. The article incorporated gives more insight on how Erikson’s stages play hand in hand with one another and can potentially affect the mental state of someone if not successfully fulfilled. There is also a possibility that, with the ‘symptoms’ of a sociopath, Lisa could have had past problems during what Sigmund Freud considered the anal stage of her childhood.

After this episode a professor convinced her to go to the hospital and reluctantly she complied. This hospital did not take kindly to her psychosis and restrained her numerous times with straps. She had never been treated this way before and was confused and frightened. She later said for a hospital for the mentally ill it had been a brutal experience (157). She then was moved to a different hospital, memorial Unit 10 (MU10) where she was first diagnosed with “Schizophrenia with acute exacerbation” (167). Though she had finally gotten a diagnosis for her broken brain it seemed more like a death sentence than a diagnosis. She continued on with life in depression, psychosis, and denial.

The five participants with no history of mental illness risked being labeled with characteristics of a mental health diagnosis. Two participants received misdiagnoses of a mental illness they did not embody. In the film, Vicky responded to the misdiagnosis by sharing that she felt confident in her mental health ( ). However, the misdiagnosis of an individual who does not have the same confidence as Vicky could have detrimental effects. As a future social worker, I feel it is important to recognize that Vicky’s response and feelings towards the misdiagnosis is likely unusual. Mental health professionals must exercise caution when preforming diagnosis, since it has a profound impact on an individual’s

Susana Kaysen is a fictional character in the movie, Girl, Interrupted. She is an 18 year old young adult, who suffers from mental illness. Susana had multiple behaviors that can be defined as abnormal. Susana’s behaviors can be grouped into four categories. The first one is deviance, which is defined by behaviors that differ from society’s norms. Susana was known to be promiscuous and have multiple sexual relationships. One sexual relationship she had was with an older man, and it happened to be a teacher. Another behavior that can be seen as deviance is her unwanted desire to attend college. At her age and in the time of the movie, it was an expectation to attend college and receive a degree. However, Susana did not want to attend a university. Another deviant behavior is Susana’s substance abuse problem with alcohol, cigarettes, and pills. Susana also displayed deviance by not following the rules in the ward. She would not take her medication and she would sneak out. At one point she even escaped for several days. These deviant behaviors were Susana’s ways of acting out.

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 and aristocratic families. By the late 1960s, however, McLean had fallen into a period neglect. This was a time of great change in the mental health care field. Kaysen grew up in a wealthy and prestigious family. Like most teenagers, she was rebellious at times, confused and unsure about her future. She didn’t want to go to college and slept with her high school English teacher. She witnessed firsthand the widening generation gap that was developing in the late 1960s. Older generations looked at Kaysen’s generation 's world with alarm.

The short documentary Crooked Beauty, directed by Ken Paul Rosenthal, narrates Jacks Ashley McNamara’s experience in a psychiatric ward and how her time in the facility shapes her new appreciation for her mental illness. One controversial issue has been trying to identify the true cause of mental illness. On the one hand, most people may think mental illness is simply a biological disorder that can be cured with a combination of medication and doctors demanding appropriate behavior until it sticks in the patient’s mind. On the other, McNamara contends that mental illness is a misconception with a patient’s oversensitivity, where it is harder for the patient to ignore certain events than “normal” people, and their doctor’s textbook knowledge. In McNamara’s mental institution, the psychiatrists simply trap her in a padded room and prescribe many different pills to suppress her mental illness instead of embracing her differences or showing her how to use those differences to her advantage. In attempt to prevent those who are mentally ill from feeling the same anger and frustration she felt, she demands a change in the line psychiatric treatment when she says:

In her first journal entry Kaysen tells how the decision for her to go to McLean Hospital was based on a twenty minute conversation with a psychiatrist. Kaysen had been picking at her acne and been acting out in ways which would not be considered unusual for teens today, but at the time it was a sufficient excuse for commitment to an institution. In an interview, Kaysen further develops the idea that her illness was influenced by outside factors saying, “ [Her] retrospective account of her confinement at McLean Hospital makes a cultural intervention that challenges the notion that mental illness is rooted solely in the individual.” (Kaysan, 18). Being surrounded by girls with serious illnesses forced Kaysen to assume the role of a girl with a real mental illness. Society forced her to find something wrong with herself in an attempt to fit in. Kaysen questions what mental illness truly is. She asks,“Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?” (Kaysen 41). Because Kaysen was labeled as being mentally ill although she was not, it became hard for her to tell what truly pronounced someone as mentally ill. Was everyone slightly crazy or were just some better at hiding it then others? Living in such an uptight society, people had no choice but to put on an act of perfection. When someone began to “drop the

In the first year, Susanna meets all the girls in the ward and tries to get treated for her symptoms. There are a lot of girls that Susanna mentions. The first girl she mentions about is Polly. Polly had sent herself on fire, and burned brutally. She has never once complained in the hospital, but she always listened to the other patients. The next girl is Lisa she is a sociopath. Lisa is always trying to escape the hospital. Daisy was a different girl; she had a thing for roasted chicken and laxatives. “Daisy was a seasonal even”, she came in during thanksgiving and stayed until Christmas, and also sometimes come on her birthday in May. On the other hand there was something peculiar about

Saunders in “Semplica-Girl Diaries” presents the idea of social norms through the symbolism of semplica girls, also known as SGs. They were poor immigrant females that sold themselves to be garden ornaments. You were classified as wealthy if you own them, but looked down upon if you did not. In connection, the protagonist is a nameless father who would do anything to make his family, especially his daughter, content, but he struggles reaching this goal while trying to survive on a small wage. He believes that “you must work hard” for everything in life, while the rich people buy their way into society.

Lori Schiller’s story of her struggles battling mental illness is frightening yet inspiring. Lori’s childhood was incredibly normal if not better than the norm. She grew up in a very affluent, wealthy family that were also very loving and supporting. Lori was also a straight A student that was accepted to some of the best universities in the country. Many people have the notion that mental illness only happens to children from bad families or the homeless but Lori proves that stereotype

Or maybe I was just a girl... interrupted.” (Susanna Kaysen) The protagonist of the movie, Susanna Kaysen is about an eighteen year old girl graduating high school. She lives her life not exactly to how society see how a young woman should, by engaging in causal sex often.. She falls asleep at her graduating and clearly showed little interest in anything society wants her to do, such as going to college underdressing for her hypocritical parents party, and sleeping with her mother's friend's husband.

The interview with Kay Redfield Jamison about her battle with bipolar disorder and stigma of being labeled “the crazy professor”. She is a psychiatry professor who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after thirty years when she tried to commit suicide. Dr. Jamison is an author of a memoir An Unquiet Mind and her acclaimed book on suicide Night Falls Fast. She is an expert on the condition of bipolar disorder and a patient herself. If someone tells you that you have an illness, and have to take medication for life, with possible side effects, there can be a huge stigma in taking medication to appear normal. This was what Dr. Jamison was trying to do, hide her illness. When you are ill the tendency is to deny that illness. The health community

The first time I remember being catcalled I was 16 years old walking from the parking lot to my high school. The parking lot was only three blocks away, but it still gave the two grown men slowly following me in their car enough time to repeatedly ask me what grade I was in.