The movie Girl, Interrupted was released in 1999 and focuses on the story of an eighteen year old girl named Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), who was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The story is based around Susanna’s personal struggles and when she was admitted into a mental hospital for trying to kill herself. Throughout the movie she further explains what made her decide to check herself into the institution, what it was like living there, and other thoughts she had towards the world. Susanna was admitted into Claymoore Hospital and was diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder. I believe that Susanna met the criteria for a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. A person that has been diagnosed with BPD are …show more content…
We know that she tried to kill herself by taking a bottle of aspirin with vodka even though she denies it so many times claiming that she took it because she had a severe headache, but everyone including Susanna knew it wasn’t true, she just didn’t want to admit it. The second unhealthy behavior was Susanna’s attempts to remain in meaningless relationships to avoid feeling abandoned. In the middle of the movie, she had a flashback of the affair she had with one of the teachers and with a guy that she met at a party after her high school graduation. In both cases, she was having meaningless sex and staying in the relationships so that she felt loved and wanted, and not rejected. The third unhealthy behavior was her mood swings. She experienced a shift in moods and felt like she had no sense of herself at all, she felt herself getting worse. Toward the end of the movie, Susanna was convinced she wasn’t going to get better and she even got defensive over what Dr. Wick (Vanessa Redgrave) and Nurse Valerie (Whoopi Goldberg) were telling her about her diagnosis. Luckily Nurse Valerie insist she is not crazy but
Susannah's family took her back and forth from the hospital several times following this first hospital trip, and returned home unsuccessful each time. The doctors could not find any evidence of a physical problem, and her family was beginning to lose hope. They knew that without evidence of a physical issue, the examinations would suggest that the issue was in her brain. Cahalan's family feared they would lose their Susannah to an unfulfilling life in a mental
Between character differences and overall structure of the memoir Girl, Interrupted written by Susanna Kaysen, it is difficult to find ways the book is similar to the film. Changing the way Kaysen perceives and shares her story with the audience changes the meaning behind her experiences illustrated throughout the text. Rather than seeing the gritty details of being hospitalized in a mental institution as described in the memoir, James Mangold, the director of the movie, portrays a less abrasive version so as to be visually pleasing and relatable to the viewer. In Girl, Interrupted we see a harsh change in the substance of Kaysen’s work compared to Mangold’s film. Characters are either toned down or changed entirely to suit the norms and restrictions of ratings and public opinion. When looking closer there are many factors to take into consideration as to why the film differs so much from Kaysen’s memoir such as the audience, budget, and casting. It may also go without mentioning that personifying someone’s life experiences as perceived in a memoir can prove to be difficult. Despite the many differences it is almost impossible to envision a better representation of the memoir as the movie has portrayed. The director and cast did the best they could in order to make Susanna Kaysen’s memoir come to life on the big screen.
Jason Coleman meets the criteria for CD in DSM 4 TR: Axis 1, for CD with a specifier of 312.81 Childhood-onset type, severe; Axis II, v71.09, no diagnoses at this time of a personality disorder; Axis III, 799.9, refer to medical history and physician’s report on head injury; Axis IV client has Problems related to the social environment; Axis V GAF score of 31 (current) (American Psychiatric Association, 2008).
The movie, “Girl Interrupted,”is about a teenage girl named Susanna Kaysen who has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. People with Borderline Personality Disorder “are often emotionally unstable, impulsive, unpredictable, irritable, and anxious. They also are prone to boredom. Their behavior is similar to that of individuals with schizotypal personality disorder but they are not as consistently withdrawn and bizarre” (Santrock, 2003). In “Girl Interrupted” Susanna Kaysen the main character, goes through many episodes that give a picture of the disorder she’s suffering from. The first such incident occurs when the psychiatrist is talks to Susanna about her failed suicide attempt. During the conversation, she is seen as confused and irritated by his presence. While the psychiatrist questions her, her mind seems to be somewhere else because she is having flash backs of her past, maybe a sign of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Susanna seems to be uncertain about things, she claims that she does not know what she feels. She was taken to the hospital after she tried to commit suicide, she took a bottle of aspirin. Her reason for taking the full bottle of aspirin was major headache, which was also alarming to the psychiatrist.
This paper looks at a person that exhibits the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In the paper, examples are given of symptoms that the person exhibits. These symptoms are then evaluated using the DSM-V criteria for BPD. The six-different psychological theoretical models are discussed, and it is shown how these models have been used to explain the symptoms of BPD. Assessment of
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been a disability surrounded by stigma and confusion for a long time, and the time to bring awareness and public understanding to this disability is long overdue. The disability itself often gets misdiagnosed as an other disability since the symptoms overlap with many other disabilities (NIMH, n.d, para 16), or worse case scenario, a medical professional refuses to diagnose or treat the disability due to the belief that these people are untreatable because of a negative schema about the disability and clinical controversies on whether BPD is a legitimate diagnosis (Hoffman, 2007) . However, after nearly three decades of research, it has come to light that BPD does indeed exist, does have a good prognosis for remission with treatment (BPD Overview, n.d, para 3), and that there are many treatment options available such as three different types of psychotherapy (Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Schema-focused therapy), omega-3 fatty acid supplements, and/or medications (NIMH, n.d, para 29, 30, 31, and 39, 41). Even though the disability started as a psychoanalytic colloquialism for untreatable neurotics (Gunderson, 2009), BPD is very treatable and doesn’t deserve the stigma it currently carries throughout society.
Girl, Interrupted is a movie released in 1999 about a young girl, Susanna Kaysen, who is admitted into a mental institution after attempting to commit suicide. The movie begins by showing Susanna getting her stomach pumped after they discovered she took an entire bottle of aspirin with vodka and admits that her hands had no bones in them. She is sent to Claymoore, a top notch mental institution, where she befriends a group of girls with an array of mental problems. She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder while she is there and struggles with confusion and denial about her diagnosis. After seeing one of the girls commit suicide, Susanna realizes that she must let everything out and recover. She eventually begins to heal and is released after spending 18
In the future, awareness of borderline personality disorder and other mental illnesses is critical.We need to be rewired to say the least. Our society needs to better informed on mental illness.These clients should not be ashamed of something they cannot choose to change. As healthcare professionals, we need to become more involved and lend a helping hand to those suffering from mental illness.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) hinders people’s security, makes interpersonal and interpersonal relationships difficult, worsens the person suffering from the disorder’s life and those around them, effects their affect and self-image, and generally makes a person even more unstable (Davidon et al., 2007). This disorder is a personality disorder which effects the people’s emotions, personality, and daily living including relationships with other and job stability. People with BPD may experience a variation of symptoms including but not limited to: intense contradictory emotions involving sadness, anger, and anxiety, feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and isolations (Biskin & Paris, 2012). This disorder makes it hard for the person with the disorder to maintain relationships since they have tendentious believe that people are either strictly good or bad. Also, they are sensitive to other people’s actions and words and are all over the place with their emotions so those in their life never know which side to expect. (Biskin & Paris, 2012)
The movie “Girl, Interrupted” is about a young woman named Susanna who attempts suicide and consequently checks in to a mental hospital called Claymore. When she gets there she’s diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. There she meets many people but mainly focuses on Lisa, a proud sociopath, and Daisy, an implied incest victim who seems to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Susanna leaves Claymore with Lisa to go see Daisy and after Daisy’s suicide she returns to Claymore where she is later released.
The history of BPD can be traced back to 1938 when Adolph Stern first described the symptoms of the disorder as neither being psychotic nor psychoneurotic; hence, the term ‘borderline’ was introduced (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15). Then in 1960, Otto Kernberg coined the term ‘borderline personality organization’ to describe persistent patterns of behavior and functioning consisting of instability, and distressed psychological self-organization (National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, 2009, p. 15).
Although she got medical help as soon as she noticed things becoming abnormal, an accurate diagnosis was hard to come by. Susannah’s friends and family began so see her become a different person, all her mental and emotional ailments were matched by physical ones, she motor-control became unpredictable, her speech was slurred, and she was plagued by seizures. Although all her medical exams came back as normal and showing no reason for worry, Susannah’s health only declined. Seeking advice and help from her friends, Susannah decided to see to get further medical help after being released from the Emergency Room from her first seizure. From this point on, Susannah began to lose more and more of herself to the disease, becoming somebody else entirely until
Girl Interrupted Review Cherie Pryor Denver College of Nursing Girl Interrupted is a film about a young woman, Susanna Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a portrayal of psychiatric care in the 1960’s. The film is based on the memoirs of Susanna Kaysen and her experiences during an 18 month stay at a mental institution. During her visit, Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The film depicts psychiatric care, diagnoses, and treatments from a different era.
Susanna was originally diagnosed by Dr. Phillip W. Crumble with Time jumps, depression, hallucinations and suicidal symptoms before being admitted into the Psychiatric Hospital. Once she arrived, she was reevaluated by Dr. Melvin Potts with borderline personality disorder. Per DMS-5 REFERENCE CODE 301.83 (F60.3) page 325 states that Borderline
Evident nontherapeutic communication techniques in this film included excessive questioning, giving disapproval, and giving advice. In one of the first scenes, her therapist asks questions in a rapid manner and does not give Susanna the opportunity to think or answer the questions. He then states that she is hurting everyone around her with her actions and that she best belongs in the mental institution (Mangold, 1999). This entire interaction was rather disempowering by not allowing her to make her own decisions and tricking her into going to a mental