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Girl, Interrupted
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Girl, Interrupted paperback cover |
|
| Author | 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 | ISBN 0679423664 |
Girl, Interrupted is a 1993 memoir by American author Susanna Kaysen. In the book, Kaysen 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 adapted into a film of the same name starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. It was directed by James Mangold.
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.
In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Massachusetts, after attempting suicide. She denies 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 18 months.
Fellow patients Polly, Cynthia, Lisa, Lisa Cody, Georgina and Daisy highlight Susanna’s experience 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." She also questions how doctors treat mental illnesses, 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." Also, during a trip to the dentist, Susanna 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, Susanna visits Georgina, who is now married and still quite unconventional. Susanna bumps into Lisa, who has a son and lives in Brookline, outside of a subway station. Georgina is now an emotionally healthy woman. Daisy commits suicide. Polly's whereabouts are unknown.
- 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.
- 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 named Wade, and she and Susanna are considered the healthiest patients on the ward.
- Lisa - She 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 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 Susanna, 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 incestuous feelings for her.
- 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 then take her out against her own will, and bring her back to Mexico where she believes she will become a junkie again.
- Alice Calais - The most disturbed of all the patients; she eventually breaks down and paints herself with her own feces. She is admitted to maximum security. 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 does not know what honey is and had never tasted it).