Girl, Interrupted (film)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Girl, Interrupted
Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Mangold
Produced by Douglas Wick
Cathy Konrad
Screenplay by James Mangold
Lisa Loomer
Anna Hamilton Phelan
Based on Girl, Interrupted
by Susanna Kaysen
Starring Winona Ryder
Angelina Jolie
Whoopi Goldberg
Jared Leto
Jeffrey Tambor
Vanessa Redgrave
Brittany Murphy
Clea DuVall
Angela Bettis
Music by Mychael Danna
Cinematography Jack N. Green
Editing by Kevin Tent
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)December 22, 1999
Running time 127 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $24 million
Box office $48,350,205[1]
Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 drama film, and an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir of the same name. The film
chronicles Kaysen's 18-month stay at a mental institution. Directed by James Mangold, the film stars Winona Ryder as
Kaysen, with a supporting cast that includesAngelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave.
Girl, Interrupted was released on December 22, 1999 and received mixed reviews from film critics. The film won
an Academy Award, with Jolie being awarded for Best Supporting Actress. Jolie also won Golden Globe and Screen
Actors Guild Awards for her performance.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Filming
5 Reception
o 5.1 Critical response
o 5.2 Author opinion
6 Accolades
7 Soundtrack
8 References
9 External links
[edit]Plot
In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) voluntarily checks herself into Claymoore Hospital after taking
an overdose of aspirin. She denies the accusation from many that she was attempting to commit suicide, claiming that
she was only "trying to make the shit stop". Nurses and therapists are surprised when Susanna acknowledges that she
does not actually want to go to college and would like to become a writer.
She befriends fellow patients Polly "Torch" Clark (Elisabeth Moss), Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall ), Daisy Randone
(Brittany Murphy), Janet Webber (Angela Bettis), and Cynthia Crowley (Jillian Armenante) and forms a small troupe of
troubled women in her ward. Susanna is particularly enchanted by Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie), a diagnosed sociopath.
When Lisa returns to the ward after running away, she notices that her old best friend's place has been taken by Susanna.
She demands to know what happened to her best friend, eventually realizing that she had committed suicide. Eventually,
Lisa befriends Susanna and the two start causing trouble. Lisa encourages Susanna to stop taking her medications and/or
trade them with others, and generally resist the influences of therapy.
During a visit outside the ward at a nearby ice cream shop, Susanna is confronted by her mother's friend, the angry wife
of Susanna's old English teacher, with whom she had an affair, and her daughter. The woman harshly berates Susanna,
but Lisa intervenes with a verbal assault, horrifying the older woman. As a result, Lisa loses her outside privileges.
Susanna's former boyfriend, Tobias "Toby" Jacobs (Jared Leto), comes to visit her. Toby reveals that he is about to be
drafted, and invites her to run away to Canada with him. He tries to convince her that she isn't crazy and that the girls in
the asylum aren't really her friends, but Susanna refuses to go with him.
It is shown that Polly observes the couple as they speak outside. That night, she awakens screaming. The nurses remove
her and place her into solitary confinement to calm her down, but she continues sobbing, horrified by the burn scars all
over her body and face. To cheer her up, Susanna steals a guitar from the music room and sits outside Polly's room with
Lisa, singing "Downtown" by Petula Clark . When a male orderly notices them, Susanna seduces him to keep him from
reporting the incident. Afterwards, the two girls fall asleep outside Polly's room. In the morning, Valerie Owens, the RN
(Whoopi Goldberg) sees the two, exclaims that she is sick of their antics and is referring them to the therapists.
The next morning, Susanna is called into the therapist's office, where she is analyzed once more. Susanna meets the
head psychiatrist, Dr. Sonia Wick (Vanessa Redgrave), and attempts to shut her out with a nasty attitude. In response,
Wick decides to take Susanna as her patient. She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Lisa is also taken to
see the doctor but does not return, and Susanna falls into a depression. Frustrated with Susanna's noncompliance,
Valerie throws her into a cold bath to wake her. Susanna attacks her verbally.
Lisa returns, and she and Susanna break out of Claymoore. After hitching a ride, they spend the night at the house of the
recently released Daisy, whom Lisa antagonizes in her usual fashion. She accuses Daisy of having
an incestuous relationship with her father, and mocks her for continuing to cut herself. Daisy hangs herself the next
morning. Unfazed by the suicide, Lisa searches her pocket, takes whatever cash she can find and nonchalantly leaves the
house on her own, but a mortified Susanna stays behind to phone an ambulance and subsequently return to the hospital.
Susanna also adopts Daisy's cat, Ruby. In the next few weeks, she begins to cooperate with her doctors and responds to
her therapy, expressing her feelings through writing and painting. She is soon scheduled to be released.
At that point, Lisa is caught and returned by the police. Upon learning about Susanna's pending release, Lisa targets
Susanna for ridicule and emotional abuse. On her last night at Claymoore, Susanna awakens to discover Lisa in the maze
of corridors beneath the ward, reading Susanna's diary to Georgina and Polly, including all of the private thoughts and
comments she has made about the other residents. The other girls turn on Susanna, with Lisa particularly vicious. In the
ensuing dispute Lisa threatens to stab herself with a large hypodermic needle, but Georgina's words disarm her. Susanna
confronts Lisa, telling her that she keeps coming back to the hospital because she has nowhere else to go, and that she is
"already dead". Defeated, Lisa cries out in anguish, but Susanna ignores her and goes back to her room.
Susanna is released the next day. Before she leaves, she visits Lisa and talks to her again, telling her that she will get out
and that she must come and see her. As Susanna leaves, she says goodbye to all her friends, giving Polly her adopted
cat Ruby and reconciling with Georgina. At the end of the film, Susanna states that by the 1970s, most of her friends were
released.
[edit]Cast
Winona Ryder as Susanna Kaysen
Angelina Jolie as Lisa Rowe, a sociopath. She is charismatic, manipulative, rebellious
and abusive.
Brittany Murphy as Daisy Randone, a sexually abused girl
with bulimia and OCD who cuts herself.
Clea DuVall as Georgina Tuskin, a pathological liar.
Elisabeth Moss as Polly "Torch" Clark, a burn victim.
Travis Fine as John, an orderly with a liking for Susanna.
Jared Leto as Tobias "Toby" Jacobs
Jeffrey Tambor as Dr. Melvin Potts
Vanessa Redgrave as Dr. Sonia Wick
Whoopi Goldberg as Valerie Owens, RN
Angela Bettis as Janet Webber, an anorexic.
Jillian Armenante as Cynthia Crowley, a lesbian
Joanna Kerns as Annette Kaysen
Bruce Altman as Professor Gilcrest
Mary Kay Place as Barbara Gilcrest
Ray Baker as Carl Kaysen
KaDee Strickland as Bonnie Gilcrest
Larry Graeff as the head grounds keeper.
Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Crumble
Alison Claire as Nurse Gretta
[edit]Production
In a 2000 Charlie Rose interview, Ryder revealed her strong passion to produce the film, indicating that it took seven
years to get to the screen. After reading the book, Ryder immediately tried to secure the rights; however, a week earlier
they had been purchased by Douglas Wick. Ryder then decided to team up with Wick along with her manager Carol
Bodie, who acted as executive producer along with Ryder. Ryder also stated that she tried hard to persuade James
Mangold to direct the film, who was reluctant at first. She states that Mangold was the right man for the role as director
after she saw his directorial debut Heavy, which explored similar themes to Girl, Interrupted.[citation needed]
[edit]Filming
Filming took place along Main Street in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, as well as in Harrisburg State
Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mechanicsburg was chosen for its old fashioned appearance and its old style drug
store simply titled "Drugs," all of which gave the film its time-dated appearance. A shot seen in the trailer shows the van
traveling towards downtown Harrisburgover the State Street Bridge, where the Capitol building is clearly visible.[2] Deleted
scenes were also filmed at Reading's Public Museum.
[edit]Reception
[edit]Critical response
Girl Interrupted currently holds a rating of 54% on Rotten Tomatoes,[3] and a rating of 51 on Metacritic,[4] indicating largely
mixed reviews from critics.
Stephen Holden in The New York Times wrote; ‘Girl, Interrupted is a small, intense period piece with a hardheaded tough-
love attitude toward lazy, self-indulgent little girls flirting with madness: You can drive yourself crazy, or you can get over
it. The choice is yours.’[5]
Tom Coates from the BBC wrote; ‘Girl, Interrupted is a decent adaptation of her memoir of this period, neatened up and
polished for an audience more familiar with gloss than grit.’[6]
[edit]Author opinion
The author, Susanna Kaysen, was among the detractors of the film, accusing Mangold of adding "melodramatic drivel" to
the story by inventing plot points that never happened in the book (such as Lisa and Susanna running away together).[7]
[edit]Accolades
Academy Awards
Best Actress in a Supporting Role — Angelina Jolie
Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture — Angelina
Jolie
Screen Actors Guild Award
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a
Supporting Role — Angelina Jolie
[edit]Soundtrack
1. Merrilee Rush performing "Angel of the Morning"
2. Petula Clark performing "Downtown"
3. Skeeter Davis performing "The End of the World"
4. Aretha Franklin performing "Night Time Is the Right Time"
5. Jefferson Airplane performing "Comin ' Back to Me "
6. Them performing "It's All Over Now Baby Blue"
7. The Chambers Brothers performing "Time Has Come Today'"
8. The Band performing "The Weight"
9. The Mamas & the Papas performing "Got a Feeling"
10. Wilco performing "How to Fight Loneliness"
11. Simon & Garfunkel performing "Bookends Theme"
[edit]References
1. ̂ "Girl, Interrupted (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-06-20.
2. ̂ "Information on the filming of Girl, Interrupted at Harrisburg State Hospital". Retrieved
2011-01-27.
3. ̂ "Girl, Interrupted Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
4. ̂ "Girl, Interrupted Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
5. ̂ "New York Times Review". New York Times. 1999-12-21. Retrieved 2010-06-21.[dead
link]
6. ̂ "BBC Review". BBC. 2001-06-28. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
7. ̂ Danker, Jared. "Susanna Kaysen, without interruptions". TheJusticeOnline.com.
Retrieved 2003-02-04.
[edit]External links
Wikiquote has a collection of
quotations related to: Girl,
Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted at the Internet Movie Database
Girl, Interrupted at AllRovi
Girl, Interrupted at Rotten Tomatoes
[hide]
V
T
E
Films directed by James Mangold
1990s
Heavy (1995)
Cop Land (1997)
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
2000s
Kate & Leopold (2001)
Identity (2003)
Walk the Line (2005)
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
2010s
Knight and Day (2010)
The Wolverine (2013)
Categories:
1999 films
English-language films
American films
Borderline personality disorder in fiction
Incest in fiction
1990s drama films
American biographical films
American coming-of-age films
American drama films
Borderline personality disorder
Columbia Pictures films
Films about drugs
Films about psychiatry
Films based on actual events
Films based on biographies
Films directed by James Mangold
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winning performance
Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe winning performance
Films set in Pennsylvania
Films set in psychiatric hospitals
Films set in the 1960s
Films shot in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
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Girl, Interrupted (1999) 127 min - Biography | Drama - 14 January 2000 (USA)
7.2
Your rating:
-/10
Ratings: 7.2/10 from 75,767 users Metascore: 51/100
Reviews: 370 user | 135 critic | 32 from Metacritic.com
Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the 1960s.
Director:
James Mangold
Writers:
Susanna Kaysen (book), James Mangold(screenplay), and 2 more credits »
Stars:
Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie and Whoopi Goldberg |See full cast and crew
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Edit
Cast
Cast overview, first billed only:
Winona Ryder ... Susanna Kaysen
Angelina Jolie ... Lisa Rowe
Whoopi Goldberg ... Valerie Owens, RN
Brittany Murphy ... Daisy Randone
Clea DuVall ... Georgina Tuskin (as Clea Duvall)
Elisabeth Moss ... Polly 'Torch' Clark
Vanessa Redgrave ... Dr. Sonia Wick
Jared Leto ... Toby Jacobs
Jeffrey Tambor ... Dr. Melvin Potts
Angela Bettis ... Janet Webber
Jillian Armenante ... Cynthia Crowley
Drucie McDaniel ... M.G.
Alison Claire ... Nurse Gretta
Christina Myers ... Nurse Margie
Joanna Kerns ... Annette Kaysen
Full cast and crew »
Edit
Storyline
Susanna is rushed to the hospital. Afterwards she discusses this with a psychiatrist. She had been having some delusions. She had also been having an affair with the husband of her parents' friend. The doctor suggests that combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka was a suicide attempt. This she denies. He recommends a short period of rest at Claymoore. Claymoore is a private mental hospital full of noisy, crazy people. Georgina is a pathological liar. Polly has been badly scarred by fire. Daisy won't eat in the presence of other people. Lisa is a sociopath, the biggest exasperation for the staff - like Nurse Valerie - and the biggest influence on the other girls in the hospital. Lisa has a history of escapes, so gaining access to personal medical files is not a problem... Susanna's boyfriend Toby is concerned that she seems too comfortable living with her institutionalized friends...Written by David Woodfield
Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Suicide | Friend | Suicide Attempt | 1960s | Mental Hospital | See more »
Taglines:
The crazy thing is, you're not crazy. See more »
Genres:
Biography | Drama
Girl, InterruptedFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the book. For the movie, see Girl, Interrupted (film).
Girl, Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted paperback cover
Author(s) Susanna Kaysen
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Memoir
Publisher Turtle Bay Books
Publication date 1993
Media type Print (hardcover &paperback)
Pages 168 pp
ISBN 0-679-42366-4
OCLC Number 28155618
Dewey Decimal 616.89/0092 B 20
LC Classification RC464.K36 A3 1993
Girl, Interrupted is a best-selling[1] 1993 memoir by American author Susanna Kaysen, relating her experiences as a
young woman in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The
memoir's title is a reference to the Vermeer painting Girl Interrupted at her Music.[2]
While writing the novel Far Afield, Kaysen began to recall her almost two years at McLean Hospital.[3] She obtained her file
from the hospital with the help of a lawyer.[4]
In 1999, the memoir was adapted into a film of the same name starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. It was directed
by James Mangold.
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot introduction
2 Plot summary
3 Characters
o 3.1 The patients
o 3.2 The staff
4 Themes
o 4.1 Mental illness vs. conformity
o 4.2 Hospitalization as treatment
o 4.3 Treating the brain vs. the mind
o 4.4 Freedom
o 4.5 Freedom vs. captivity
5 See also
6 Book reviews
7 References
8 External links
[edit]Plot introduction
The plot of Girl, Interrupted does not follow a linear storyline, but instead the author provides personal stories through a
series of short descriptions of events and personal reflections on why she was placed in the hospital. She begins by
talking about the concept of a parallel universe and how easy it is to slip into one, comparing insanity to an alternate
world. She discusses how some people fall into insanity gradually and others just snap. Kaysen also details the doctor's
visit before first going to the hospital and the taxi ride there at the beginning of the book before launching into the
chronicles of her time at the hospital.
[edit]Plot summary
In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Massachusetts, after
attempting suicide by overdosing on pills. She denies that it was a suicide attempt to a psychiatrist, who suggests she
take time to regroup in McLean, a private mental hospital. Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and
her stay extends to 18 months[5] rather than the proposed couple of weeks.
Fellow patients Polly, Cynthia, Lisa, Lisa Cody, Georgina and Daisy contribute to Susanna’s experiences at McLean as
she describes their personal issues and how they come to cope with the time they must spend in the hospital. Susanna
also introduces the reader to particular staff members, including Valerie, Dr. Wick and Mrs. McWeeney.
Susanna reflects on the nature of her illness, including difficulty making sense of visual patterns, and suggests
that sanity is a falsehood constructed to help the "healthy" feel "normal" in comparison. She also questions how doctors
treat mental illness, and whether they are treating the brain or the mind.
During her stay, Susanna undergoes a period of depersonalization, where she bites open the flesh on her hand after she
becomes terrified that she has "lost her bones." She develops a frantic obsession with the verification of this proposed
reality and even insists to see and X-ray of herself to make sure. This hectic moment is described with shorter, choppy
sentences that show Kaysen's state of mind and thought processes as she went through them. Also, during a trip to the
dentist with Valerie, Susanna becomes frantic after she wakes from the general anesthesia, when no one will tell her how
long she was unconscious, and she fears that she has lost time. Like the incident with her bones, Kaysen here also
rapidly spirals into a panicky and obsessive state that is only ultimately calmed with medication.
After leaving McLean, Susanna mentions that she kept in touch with Georgina and saw Lisa, who was about to board the
subway with her son and seemed, although quirky, to be sane.
[edit]Characters
There are two main groups of characters, the patients and the staff. In addition to those there are her parents, her
boyfriend and various other minor characters such as her former boss.
[edit]The patients
Susanna Kaysen - The autobiographical main character, Susanna Kaysen is admitted
to a psychiatric ward to be treated for borderline personality disorder following a suicide
attempt. She voluntarily admits herself after a short consultation with a psychiatrist who
is also an acquaintance of the family. She is told that she will only be staying there for a
few weeks, but it turns out to be close to two years instead. Throughout the book, she
frequently contrasts the time of the consultation, twenty minutes, to the time she ended
up spending there.
Lisa Rowe - Lisa is diagnosed as a sociopath, but whether she actually is one is left
open to interpretation. Lisa periodically escapes from the hospital, only to be found a
day or two later and re-admitted. She is usually happy enough to be back though she
does put up a fight when restrained. She is an ex-junkie who never sleeps and barely
eats, and enjoys making trouble for the staff. She apparently takes some pride in her
diagnosis. Although she has a therapist assigned to her, she never actually sees him.
Lisa is not in contact with her family except her brother, but the extent of their contact is
not described. She also has a lawyer, though it appears he is mostly used to threaten
the staff if she doesn't get what she wants. Her behavior is wildly unpredictable, and
while she can be kind, she is also capable of cruelty towards the other patients. For
example, Lisa has an ongoing rivalry with Lisa Cody that ends in Lisa Cody reverting to
drugs.
Polly Clark - A disfigured patient hospitalised for schizophrenia and depression. Polly
has severe scarring on her body, the result of setting herself on fire. According to
Kaysen, because of the sheer guts it took to actually do it, Polly is highly respected for
her courage, to the extent that none of the patients will ask why she did it. During her
first year at the hospital, she appears calm and even cheerful: "Life was hellish, she
knew that. But, her smile hinted, she’d burned all that out of her."[6] But one day she
suddenly breaks down and begins to scream inconsolably, as if realizing for the first
time her appearance and the permanency of it. Kaysen then realizes that while the
other patients might be released from the hospital, Polly is trapped forever in her
scarred body.
Georgina Tuskin - Hospitalized because of schizophrenia,[6] Georgina is Susanna's
roommate at the institution. The two of them are considered the healthiest patients on
the ward and are good friends throughout the novel. Georgina apparently experienced
her first symptoms after an episode in a movie theatre where she suddenly felt as if the
darkness had surrounded her completely. It is not clear what the immediate reason for
her diagnosis is. She also has a boyfriend in the hospital named Wade.
Lisa Cody - She is admitted while Kaysen is there and from the beginning looks up to
Lisa Rowe. She is diagnosed as a sociopath too, though Rowe questions this and is
clearly annoyed that she is no longer the only sociopath there. A former drug addict like
Rowe, she tries hard to defend herself from Lisa Rowe's accusations that she isn't
"real". She eventually escapes and is apparently found by Lisa Rowe during one of her
escapes from the hospital. Lisa tells the other girls with pride that Lisa Cody has
become a "real" drug addict. Her fate after her escape is not described any further.
Daisy Randone - A thin girl who is admitted to the hospital seasonally, according to
Susanna, coming before Thanksgiving and staying through Christmas every year. She
has a single room, where she spends most of her time. The other girls think she is
addicted to laxatives and will only eat chicken, and only in her room. However, after
letting Lisa into her room, Lisa reports back to the rest of them that she only needs the
laxatives because of all of the chicken. She peels off the meat and keeps the
carcasses, saying that when she has 14 carcasses, it's time to leave the hospital,
possibly due to obsessive compulsive disorder. Daisy's father visits her quite often, and
it is implied he has incestuous feelings for her. Daisy eventually commits suicide on her
birthday. Susanna describes her as "sexy" and says Daisy had a spark that the rest of
the girls lack. Daisy is reclusive and often refuses to be social. She hates it when
anyone goes near her and is hostile when people approach her. However, she does
allow Lisa to enter her room. Sometimes they even share cigarettes, indicating that
Daisy does respect Lisa out of all the other patients on the ward.
Torrey - An ex-drug addict. She was put into the ward after her parents discovered her
promiscuity. She is the best friend of all the fellow patients. Her parents take her out
against her will, and take her back to Mexico, where she believes she will become
an amphetamine addict again. She Describes Mexico, saying "being in Mexico means
being dead and shooting speed to feel like you're not quite dead" (Kaysen 97). The girls
do try to help her with an escape plan and pool their money for her to help her, but
eventually that plan is ruined, partly by Torrey herself as she is too afraid to do it and
partly by Valerie after she gives her a cup of thorazine just prior to her departure do
calm her down. Though she only appears for a short time she is an important character.
Kaysen distinguishes between those put there indefinitely by parents willing to pay
without questioning the progress of their treatment and those whose parents are not
willing to do so. Torrey is used as an example of the latter group.
Alice Calais - At first she seems quiet and, in Kaysen's own words, "not too crazy" but
she eventually breaks down and is taken to maximum security after about a month.
When the girls go to visit her they find that she has painted herself and the walls in her
seclusion room with her own feces. Most of the other patients believe she was "raised
in a closet" because she is ignorant about the trivial things in life. For example, she has
never tasted honey and doesn't know how it tastes. She is also completely unaware
that her last name is a well-known location in Franceand is overwhelmed in awe when
she hears of the Hundred Years' War. It is not explained what happens to her after the
girls visit her.
Wade - Georgina's boyfriend, also a patient. Wade entertains the female patients with
stories about his father, who he claims to be a CIA agent. He is prone to violent
outbursts, which eventually results in his being moved to the maximum-security ward.
Cynthia Crowley - a severely depressive patient, who undergoes weekly electro-
convulsive therapy.[6] There are only a few references to her in the novel and she isn't
really a major character in it.
[edit]The staff
Valerie - The head nurse on the ward. She works there during the day and though she
can be strict she is generally liked by the patients and Kaysen in particular. She is
described as down to earth and rarely uses the psychiatric terms used by the
therapists, which is something that Susanna herself despises. Kaysen recalls her as
honest and direct. Kaysen also mentioned that Valerie's hair is very, very long and that
the girls all love it. Sometimes, they are able to coax her into taking it out of its stiff
braid-bun and show them how she braids it.
Mrs. McWeeney - The evening nurse on the ward. Described as the exact opposite of
Valerie and very much disliked by the patients. Kaysen recalls her as "clearly nuts."
Valerie does not like her and tends to ignore her, although she does describe her as a
professional when the patients complain to her. Although the patients don't like her,
they recognize that she needs to earn a living and that she has to work somewhere for
that to happen.
Dr. Wick - The consultant psychiatrist. She is described as very old-fashioned and easy
to embarrass. Susanna purposely tries to embarrass her, deliberately saying things that
she knows Dr. Wick will react to, during their sessions together. She has previously
worked in Africa and her direct contact with the patients is very limited, talking to them
for only a matter of minutes in a session.
Melvin - Kaysen's late therapist and analyst. Susanna says that the two of them used to
be good friends and that she once enjoyed sessions with him. According to her, he was
old, balding, and slightly unattractive. Susanna would go into his office sometimes and
just sit there in silence because there wasn't very much silence in the hospital and she
needed a break. However, this relationship was short-lived; Melvin rolled into the
hospital parking lot, and, when greeted enthusiastically by Susanna, refused to
entertain her. Her opinion of him spiraled downward from that point.
[edit]Themes
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009)
The book explores several themes related to mental illness and society's interpretation of it.
[edit]Mental illness vs. conformity
Although Kaysen does admit that she was going through a very difficult time, she questions the validity of her diagnosis
and to what degree it could be applied universally to anyone showing nonconformist behavior. She recalls the other
patients' mental conditions and finds it hard to relate them to her own problems. She also describes the stigma that
follows from having been hospitalized for mental illness and how she eventually stopped telling people in order to avoid
the negative reaction.
[edit]Hospitalization as treatment
Kaysen elaborates through parts of the book on her thoughts about how mental illness is treated. She explains that
families who are willing to pay the rather high costs of hospitalization do so to prove their own sanity. Once one member
of the family is hospitalized, it becomes easier for the rest of the family to distance themselves from the problem and to
create a clear boundary between the sane and the insane. Recognizing a family member or friend as insane makes
others around them, says Kaysen, compare themselves to that individual. Hospitalization allows for distance from this
questioning of self that makes us so uncomfortable. Her view that mental illness often includes the entire family means the
hospitalized family member becomes an excuse for other family members not to look at their own problems. This explains
the willingness to pay the high financial costs of hospitalization.
[edit]Treating the brain vs. the mind
An important issue in Kaysen's view is the distinction between the treatment of the brain versus the treatment of the mind.
She uses an example with two interpreters, one reacting to one's senses and another that processes and evaluates the
results from the first interpreter. She describes mental illness as the failure of the second interpreter to correctly dismiss
false interpretations by the first interpreter. She compares this with the chemical reactions of the brain and concludes that
those who treat mental illness with drugs are treating the brain whereas therapy is aimed at treating the mind. Though she
does not dismiss the use of drugs, she is critical of them.
[edit]Freedom
Through parts of the book she describes the trade-off between being a patient in a mental institution and being free in the
conventional sense of the word. Though restricted by a complex set of rules she also describes how not being out in the
real world sets her free from the expectations of parents and society when it comes to education and work. Though she
describes the hospital as a womb you can't get out of, she also explains the difficulties she had prior to being hospitalized
and how the pressure increasingly got to her. She evaluates the benefits of being in the hospital and being in the outside
world - two parallel universes, as she said in the introduction, that each present one with many freedoms of different
kinds. The hospital provides freedom from responsibility, but is also a prison in that many freedoms and choices that the
patients would have outside the hospital are taken away.
[edit]Freedom vs. captivity
When Kaysen enters McLean Hospital, she quickly comes to understand that although captivity appears to require the
surrender of freedom, the opposite is often true. The ward is organized to keep patients exposed to staff scrutiny at all
times. With nurse checks at frequent intervals, every room is essentially public except for one. The “seclusion room” sits
at farthest reach of the main hallway, intended for out-of-control patients who pose harm to others or simply make too
much of a disturbance. Patients can also choose to be placed in the room, prompting Kaysen to remark, “freedom was the
price of privacy”. Here, a patient can be blessedly alone for a period, free from scrutiny and company but, like the hospital
in comparison to the outside world, confined to even tighter quarters. The seclusion room is a microcosm for the entire
experience of confinement to the hospital. Kaysen notes that McLean is “a refuge as much as a prison.” Without school, a
job, bills, parents, or the outside world to deal with, the girls are free to ignore responsibility, even as that responsibility
has been taken from them. Kaysen finds that this apparent paradox isn't confined to the hospital. After nearly two years at
McLean, Kaysen looks for a means to leave but finds that her hospital stay stigmatizes her in the eyes of employers. A
marriage proposal turns her circumstances on their head. “Everyone could understand a marriage proposal,” she writes,
despite nearly total uncertainty about the appropriateness of her fiancé or the appeal of marriage itself. The engagement
frees Kaysen from the confinement of the hospital, but it limits her opportunities.
[edit]See also
Mental illness
Borderline personality disorder
[edit]Book reviews
"Poignant, honest and triumphantly funny...A compelling and heartbreaking story." -Susan Cheever, The New York Times
Book Review [7]
"Searing... Girl, Interrupted captures an exquisite range of self-awareness between madness and insight." - The Boston
Globe
"Tough-minded...darkly comic...written with indelible clarity." -Newsweek
"Ingenious...designed to provoke unanswerable questions. Kaysen does not point morals or impose insights, bet lets
adroit imagery, powerful scene-writing and the silence between chapters do the work of judgement... [It is] an account of a
disturbed girl's unwilling passage into womanhood...and here is the girl, looking into out faces with urgent eyes." -Diane
Middlebrook, The Washington Post Book World
[edit]References
1. ̂ The Unconfessional Confessionalist, Time Magazine, July 11, 1994
2. ̂ Girl, Interrupted, Variety, December 10, 1999
3. ̂ A teenager's interrupted life, Knight Ridder Newspapers, December 1, 1993
4. ̂ Girl, interrupted.(Reel Life) Clinical Psychiatry News, August 1, 2003
5. ̂ Susanna Kaysen finds stability in examining youthful 'insanity', Knight-Ridder
Newspapers, August 4, 1993
6. ^ a b c Susana Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted (Virago Press, 2000 ed.)
7. ̂ Kaysen, Susanna (1996). Girl, Interrupted, p. 1. Vintage Books, New York. ISBN 978-
0-679-74604-1
[edit]External links
Girl, Interrupted on SparkNotes
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Categories:
1993 books
American autobiographies
Borderline personality disorder
Memoirs
Novels set in hospitals
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