Girl, Interrupted
Girl, Interrupted is a memoir about a young woman named Susanna Kaysen. She is admitted into a psychiatric ward and plans to stay temporarily however, she stays for about two years. This book was written in 1993 by Susanna Kaysen. She recalls her meetings with others at the ward, when she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality disorder and other events such as her attempted suicide and medication.
The first chapter of the book begins with a question. “How did you get in there?” and Kaysen begins explaining what the question really means and that she feels it is easy to enter the parallel universe. As she finishes explaining her thoughts on the parallel universe she says, “ Every window on Alcatraz has a view of San Fransisco.”
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After this part she's speaking to a new psychiatrist whom she's never spoken to before and he believes that the pimple she picked at is a symbol of self destruction. He arranges for her to have a place at the ward as a “rest” and Kaysen attempts to fight it, albeit very weakly. Throughout this book we see not only Susanna’s private and in depth thoughts, but also how she reacts to the world around her.
The Velocity vs. Viscosity section shows how she picks apart at her emotions and how she views simple things in life. “First, break down the sentence: I'm tired--well, are you really tired, exactly? Is that like sleepy?” and to me, I found this a bit depressing. It felt to me as if she was doubting herself and belittling her issues. In the next few chapters, 2-4 we learn about Polly, a woman who sets herself on fire and Susanna thinks about how the burnt areas of Polly’s skin changes or ages like the rest of her undamaged skin. She seems slightly wishful for skin like Polly’s. However by the end of the chapter she is aware of how fortunate she is to not have a permanent reminder of her failed
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Kaysen has been diagnosed with “a character disorder”, Cynthia suffers from depression, Polly and Georgina from schizophrenia, Kaysen and Lisa is a sociopath. Also, a new girl who is also named Lisa is diagnosed as a sociopath which creates conflict between the two, which in the end, causes the “original” Lisa to run