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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