Girl, Interrupted
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This article is about the book. For information about the movie, see Girl, Interrupted (film)
Girl, Interrupted is a memoir by Susanna Kaysen. In the book she relates her experiences as a patient in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s. The memoir's title is taken from the Vermeer painting, Girl Interrupted at her Music.
In 1999, the memoir was used as the basis for the film Girl, Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, and directed by James Mangold.
[edit] Plot of Girl, Interrupted
The "plot" of Girl, Interrupted does not follow a linear storyline, but instead the author provides personal stories through a series of non-chronological vignettes and personal reflections on why she was institutionalized.
Susanna Kaysen, eighteen years old in April of 1967, voluntarily enters McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Massachusetts, after attempting suicide. Kaysen is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and her stay extends eighteen months.
Fellow patients, Chelsea, Polly, Cynthia, Lisa, Lisa Cody, Georgina and Daisy highlight Kaysen’s experience at McLean as she describes their personal issues, insanities, and how they come to cope with the time they must spend in the hospital. Kaysen also introduces the reader to particular staff members, including Valerie, Dr. Wick and Mrs. McWeeney.
Kaysen 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." She also questions how doctors treat mental illnesses, and whether they are treating the brain or the mind.
During her stay, Kaysen undergoes a frightening period of depersonalization, where she bites open the flesh on her hand after she becomes terrified that she has "lost her bones." Also, during a trip to the dentist, Kaysen becomes frantic after waking from the general anesthesia and no one will tell her how long she was unconscious. She fears that she has "lost" time.
Some years after leaving McLean, Kaysen visits Georgina, who is now married and still quite unconventional. Kaysen bumps into Lisa, who has a son and lives in Brookline, outside of a subway station. Chelsea is now a regular, healthy girl, Daisy commits suicide and, Polly's whereabouts are unknown.
[edit] Characters
Susanna Kaysen - The autobiographical main character, Kaysen is admitted to a psychiatric ward to be treated for borderline personality disorder following a suicide attempt.
Polly - Suffers from schizophrenia. Before admission to hospital, Polly set herself on fire, for reasons unknown to her fellow patients. She is left with horrible scarring.
Georgina- Hospitalised for schizophrenia, Georgina is Susanna's roommate at the institution. She has a boyfriend in the hospital called Wade, and she and Susanna are considered the healthiest patients on the ward.
Lisa - A sociopath. Lisa periodically escapes from the hospital with Chelsea, only to be found a day or two later and re-admitted. She is an ex-junkie, who never sleeps and barely eats, and enjoys making trouble for the staff.
Daisy - A thin girl who is admitted to hospital seasonally according to Kaysen, coming before Thanksgiving and staying through Christmas every year. She has a single room, where she spends most of her time. She is addicted to laxatives, and will only eat chicken, in her room. She peels off the meat and keeps the carcasses, saying that when she has 14 carcasses, it's time to leave the hospital. Daisy's father visits her quite often and it is implied he has sexual feelings for her.
Torrey - A promiscuous girl who almost never eats. Was put into the ward after her parents discovered her promiscuity. Best friend of all the fellow patients. She periodically escapes from the hospital with Lisa, only to be found a day or two later. The staff believes she does not truly need to be in the hospital, but her parents insist she stays.
Alice Calais - The most disturbed of all the patients. She is the most severely ill. She breaks down and paints herself with her own feces.
