...Girl Interrupted is a novel by Susanna Kaysen in which the author shares stories of her time in a mental institution. The author of Girl Interrupted approaches human health in 3 different ways. She uses personal experiences, extensively researched information about each of the mental illnesses mentioned in the novel and the theme of ‘mental illnesses vs. tradition’ to inform the audience about mental illnesses. As the majority of the stories in the book are Susanna’s own personal experiences, they are very detailed, but appear to be bias as they are about her and are her side of the story. Susanna uses her own personal experiences to approach human health in a way that is very unique. By including detailed stories in her novel, the audience is persuaded into supporting however Susanna felt or what she believed in the situation, even if she was morally wrong, utterly influencing the audience’s opinion of mental illnesses. The amount of stories and personal experiences discussed in the novel opens up the younger audience to release that many young people today suffer from mental illnesses. She also connected this theme with the quote “Scar tissue has no character. It's not like skin. It doesn't show age or illness or pallor or tan. It has no pores, no hair, no wrinkles. It's like a slipcover. It shields and disguises what's beneath. That's why we grow it; we have something to hide.” (p. 6). The author used this quote to link her themes discussed in the book and to allow the readers...
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...Girl interrupted is about an 18 year old girl named Susanna who just graduated high school. She is rushed to the hospital after ingesting a bottle of aspirin chased with vodka. Although she denies the suicide attempt, her doctor demands for her to take a rest at Claymore Mental Institution. At the institution she meets several girls with mental illnesses and is diagnosed herself with Borderline personality disorder. Susanna was raised by her two parents in an authoritarian manner. Her parents pushed her into doing things that benefited them socially and she often felt lonely or left out. They were strict, emotionally distant, involved no communication, and set forth many rules. This lack of acceptance by her parents may have lead to a loss...
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...” Borderline Personality Disorder is a condition characterized by impulsive actions, rapidly shifting moods, and chaotic relationships, most commonly found in women. The individual usually goes from one emotional crisis to another making it difficult to form close connections with people. Often there is dependency, separation anxiety, unstable self-image, chronic feelings of emptiness, and threats of self-harm such as suicide or self-mutilation. In the movie “Girl, Interrupted”, main character Susanna Kaysen is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Initially in denial of her disorder and suicide attempt upon entry to the psychiatric institution Claymoore, she learns to cope with her disorder, accept who she is, and learns to make meaningful lasting friendships. In order to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, impairments of personality functioning (within self and interpersonal) must be present as well as pathological personality traits. With this disorder, the person can often function "normally" in society, but the internal emotional pain can be unbearable. People suffering with this disorder can be very moody, can have feelings of desperation, insecurity, and isolation. They tend to be impulsive and suffer from bouts of depression. They also tend to live recklessly and engage in self-damaging behavior. Those with BPD may hurt themselves as an outlet to dealing with their chronic feelings of emptiness and identity...
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...Girl interrupted The 1960s was a decade of tumult and change. It was a shift in almost everything, from values, music and norms, from collar-workers to flower-children. Counterculture and hippies were essentially what summed up the rebellion in the 60s. It was a whole new generation of baby-boomers, who came of age as teenagers and adolescents and older generations were against the rejection of traditional values and the new unconventional ways of the baby-boomers, which were strange and scary to them. Susanna Kaysen was also a young adult during the late rise of the 60s’ youth culture. She’s the author of the autobiography, Girl Interrupted, in which she writes about her own experience at a mental institution back in end of the 1960s. Through her memoirs and description of the society back then, Susanna Kaysen throws light upon the generation gap and the problems and complications during the social revolution in the 60s. A doctor, who Susanna has never met before, suggests after a 20-minute interview, that she should be admitted to a mental institution. She agrees, thinking it’s only for a short time, but few weeks turned out to be two years. In the excerpt, she reflects on her own conceptions of reality and tells about how her and other patients at the mental institute sat by quietly, when the world was raging outside and moving on, while they were on standby. 18 years old Susanna questions her own diagnosis, Borderline. At such early age, she has already tried a lot...
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...Caroline Dietz Girl, Interrupted Susanna Kaysen does not show many signs of madness through out the book until the chapter entitled “Bare Bones.” (Pg. 94-104) The reader is shocked to find, in this chapter, Kaysen attempting to rip through her hand in order to see if it contained any bones. The chapter begins with Torrey leaving the hospital. Later that day, Kaysen randomly begins to examine her hand. She states, “my palm looked like a monkey’s palm” (Pg. 101) then continues to claim her hand may not be human. She then tries to bite into her hand in order to see inside of it. This is the first act of madness that we have seen from Kaysen so far in this book. She takes the reader through every thought she has in this process. First examining her hand, second biting her hand, third scratching at her hand, and finally being subdued. Kaysen is very distraught when looking at her hand. She worries she is not human because she believes she does not possess any bones in her hand. She claimed, “if I spread my fingers apart, my hand looked more human.” (Pg. 102) This is, of course, absurd to me. All people have bones, and Kaysen is obviously a person, but she is so adamant on not having any bones in her hand. Then, in order to prove to herself she is a real human, she decides to rip into her hand. Though it is hard for me to understand this thought process, I do understand the concept of being curious and wondering about aspects of them selves. Whether or not they are normal...
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...Alexis Marques PSC 168 Extra Credit In Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, the book starts out in the year of 1967 and introduces an eighteen year old Susanna Kaysen who is in session with a doctor she never seen before; who tells her she has a “pimple and that she has been picking at it.” (pg 7) He then asked her if she has been picking at herself in general and Susanna nods (she agrees to anything that the doctor asks her). The doctor repeats that she has been picking herself and then says “you need a rest.” (pg 7) Before Susanna knows it the doctor makes a call, a taxi comes and he tells the driver to take her to McLean Hospital. Once at McLean, Susanna introduces a girl name Polly who had set herself on fire at one point, and that she was never unhappy, she was kind and comforting and never complained. Susanna describes Polly’s suicide attempt as one having courage and being dangerous at the same time. She compares danger and defeat to when one puts a gun in their mouth and is not able to pull the trigger, which is expressed in this quote: “But you put it there, you taste it, it’s cold and greasy, your finger is on the trigger, and you find that a whole world lies between this moment and the moment you’ve been planning, when you’ll pull the trigger. That world defeats you. You put the gun back in the drawer. You’ll have to find another way.”(pg 17) Susanna then reavles her suicide attempt, which she swallowed fifty aspirins and then went outside and fainted , while...
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...Imagine yourself dead. Swallow fifty aspirin, and then once you realize it was a mistake, take a walk. A five-block, dizzy, blurry walk to the grocery store, where surely someone will save you. Susanna Kaysen was teetering on the edge of life and death but worse, she was standing directly on the blurred line between sanity and insanity. In her memoir, Girl, Interrupted she shares her psychiatric hospital experiences that followed her attempted suicide. Girl, Interrupted was published in 1993, over twenty years after her two-year stay at McLean Psychiatric Hospital. In 1999, this journal of Susanna’s life was adapted into a Hollywood drama-filled movie. The movie Girl, Interrupted, directed by James Mangold, is loosely based on the book. Both the book and the movie are enjoyable, but the book is better because it is a truthful description of real events. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen provides first hand insight into the lives of patients at McLean Hospital. Much like the scattered thoughts in her brain, the book does not have a true...
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...I wanted to write to you to tell you how much your book has influenced me, considering that I am an adolescent. I acquired an interest in psychology at a very young age, obsessed and fascinated with different disorders that I could self-diagnose myself with. I began reading all sorts of books under the psychology genre and I eventually came across Girl, Interrupted. That was only two years ago. The first time I read your book I was in a solitary state of mind. I used to think that I would always be like that, that I would never change and grow into the person that I am today. This thinking is what made me drift away from the very message you were trying to get out of for writing your book. Two years have passed and I decided to read your...
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...This past weekend, I saw the movie Girl Interrupted. As a requirement of the course, it was an intriguing film.This movie took place in the late 60's, is about a young lady, who is eighteen and has just graduated from high school. The character Lisa is diagnosed with a mental disorder and committed to the mental institution Clay Moore for a year of her life; Where she befriends young ladies that are around the similar same age and are patients in this hospital as well. The movie follows the treatment of this patient, symptoms of their disorders, and the different stages that Lisa goes through as she accepts the realization that she could have a mental disorder. The trials and tribulations that she endures on her road to recovery. The character...
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...In the movie “Girl, Interrupted” the main character Susana, attempts to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka and ends up in the hospital. Susana’s doctor recommended her to a mental institution, where she could recover from her mental disorders. This mental institution is a private medical hospital crowded with people with many mental disorders. Polly has been burned with fire on her face. Georgina is a pathological liar. She is not completely rooted in reality, she believes all lies she tell. Daisy is sexually abused by her father. Lisa is a sociopath. She has a personality disorder, she is extremely antisocial and loves to make people feel bad about themselves. Lisa escaped multiple times from the mental institution and having access to personal medical files. Sadly Susana follows Lisa's footsteps....
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...Character Analysis: Girl, Interrupted The secondary main character within the film Girl, Interrupted (James Mangold, 1999) is Lisa who is played by Angelina Jolie. Lisa is a rebellious patient of Claymore Mental Institution in Massachusetts circa 1960. She is considered a sociopath in the medical field, and proves so by consistently pushing the boundaries of Claymore Institution in numerous ways. Lisa was identified as a sociopath due to her inability to feel remorse or sadness regardless of her behaviour. She frequently disobeys the staff as well as maintains a toxic relationship over the patients in which she controls and torments them for her own enjoyment. Despite her many destructive acts and rule-breaking attitude, Lisa is considerably unpredictable as she can also be kind and motherly to the patients. Lisa is an attractive caucasian female with blonde, choppy hair and grey blue eyes. She has a track record of running away from Claymore, where food supply is presumably low, which explains her look of malnourishment. Lisa has a tall and lanky frame in which she is around 5'7 and weighs 130 lbs. Lisa has a distinctive personality, as it is controlling and overpowering in comparison to her fellow patients. Although Lisa tends to act in such a cold manor that she seems inhuman, she does have a breakdown as she is confronted with her faults, which proves that despite her title as a sociopath, she does hold human emotion regardless of how much she desires to suppress sadness...
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...The Alchemist Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the halfdestroyed roof. I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food and water. "They...
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...The Alchemist Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the halfdestroyed roof. I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious energy bound his life to that of the sheep, with whom he had spent the past two years, leading them through the countryside in search of food and water. "They...
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...Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Page 1 / 94 The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho Translated by Alan R. Clarke. Published 1992. ISBN 0-7225-3293-8. = CONTENTS = Part One Part Two Epilogue PART ONE The boy's name was Santiago. Dusk was falling as the boy arrived with his herd at an abandoned church. The roof had fallen in long ago, and an enormous sycamore had grown on the spot where the sacristy had once stood. He decided to spend the night there. He saw to it that all the sheep entered through the ruined gate, and then laid some planks across it to prevent the flock from wandering away during the night. There were no wolves in the region, but once an animal had strayed during the night, and the boy had had to spend the entire next day searching for it. He swept the floor with his jacket and lay down, using the book he had just finished reading as a pillow. He told himself that he would have to start reading thicker books: they lasted longer, and made more comfortable pillows. It was still dark when he awoke, and, looking up, he could see the stars through the half-destroyed roof. Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist Page 2 / 94 I wanted to sleep a little longer, he thought. He had had the same dream that night as a week ago, and once again he had awakened before it ended. He arose and, taking up his crook, began to awaken the sheep that still slept. He had noticed that, as soon as he awoke, most of his animals also began to stir. It was as if some mysterious...
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...was unusual in the daughter of a professor of classics in the year 1912— were folded in the fifth position. She was a thin girl, brown-haired and brown-eyed, whose gravity and gentleness could not always conceal her questing spirit and eagerness for life. Sensibly dressed in a blue caped coat and tarn o'shanter bought to last, a leather music case propped against the wall beside her, she was a familiar figure to the passers-by: to ancient Dr. Ferguson, tottering across the willow-fringed bridge in inner pursuit of an errant Indo-Germanic verb; to a gardener trimming the edges of the grass, who raised his cap to her. Professor Morton's clever daughter; Miss Morton's biddable niece. To grow up in Cambridge was to be fortunate indeed. To be able to look at this marvelous city each day was a blessing of which one should never tire. Harriet, crumbling bread into the water for the world's most blase ducks, had told herself this again and again. But it is not cities which make the destinies of eighteen-year-old girls, it is people— and as she gazed at the lazy, muddy river and thought of her future and her home, her eyes held an expression which would have better become a little gutter starveling— a bleak and shipwrecked look devoid of happiness and hope. Professor Morton was already in his forties when, at a reading party in Switzerland, he met an English girl working as a governess to the children of a Swiss industrialist...
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