Girl Interrupted By Susanna Kaysen

Susanna Kaysen’s memoir, Girl, Interrupted (1996), documents the author’s almost two year stay in McLean Hospital, in which she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Throughout this book, Kaysen offers a look into her experiences in the psychiatric ward through retellings of events in non-chronological order. Kaysen’s book begins when she is eighteen years old, and institutionalized, and continues on to her life after the institution. She recounts how she got to the hospital, her experiences in the hospital, as well as descriptions of the different people she encounters. Though the events and people that Kaysen describes are often presented out of context, Kaysen builds a memoir that communicates
One of the strongest parts of

Kaysen’s memoir (1996) has to be her description of suicide and the thought process that goes into seeing suicide as a viable option. When Kaysen expands on her thoughts of suicide, she compares it to a form of premeditated murder. She states that suicide it “…isn’t something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are incompatible with the suicidal state of mind (36).” This thought process is interesting because it gives a glimpse into the clarity and planning that can be behind suicidal tendencies. It presents the idea that if those who are suicidal can think with enough clarity to carefully plan their own “murder”, does not this challenge the way people view people with mental illness and the clarity of their thoughts. Many people believe that people with a mental illness might not have the mental capacities to think clearly, but what Kaysen is suggesting is that perhaps those will mental illness hasve some claritiy of though, even if its only towards suicide, and if that’s true are they technically still “mentally ill.”What’s most interesting is Kaysen’s distinction that suicide is only a solution for half of yourself. By that she means she just wants to kill part of herself; more specifically, she wants to kill that part of herself that has suicidal ideations.
Another aspect of the memoir that is very important to its development is Kaysen’s description of the awareness she has of her disorder (1996).

Kaysen describes that her Borderline Personality disorder was something that she was very aware of. She emphasizes that during her “madness” she was aware of all the different misrepresentations of reality she held (41). This awareness is so interesting because people hold assumptions that people who have a mental illness are not aware of their disorder, they are instead seem as blissfully or not blissfully locked in their own world. The fact that Kaysen explains that she never really believed the perceptions and things she saw and yet she could not stop having them is so powerful to read. Kaysen’s Borderline Personality Disorder leads to a feeling of alienation and isolation and though she is aware of her illness and the effects it brings she cannot consciously stop the things she sees or

does.
Though Kaysen was unable to stop the thoughts she had because of her disorder, she believes that her awareness of her disorder allowed her to behave normally when needed. This is such an amazing advantage that is rarely discussed when looking at mental illnesses. The ability to act normal when needed allows Kaysen to maintain an illusion of her sanity in front of other people. This privilege is unfounded in illnesses that permeate every aspect of a person’s life, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It seems that being able to hide a mental illness is not a direct advantage, but in reality it is. Being able to hide an illness can help a person keep up an illusion of normality even in the face the complete chaos they might be feeling.
Kaysen’s memoir also touches on the stigma attached to psychological disorders and more specifically personality disorders (1996).

Kaysen believes that attached to personality disorders, is a stigma that it is the mentally ill persons fault. Kaysen addresses how if her disorder had been more biological she would be blameless (151). She compares Borderline Personality Disorder with bipolar disorder, stating that if she had bipolar disorder the reader’s reactions to her would be different. Because bipolar disorder is attached to a chemical imbalance, people look at it as a true illness, and tend not to blame the person with the disorder. She even goes on to compare her disorder to schizophrenia, stating that if she had schizophrenia people would see it as a true madness and be suffused with chills at the thought of the disorder. The idea that some mental illnesses are taken more seriously than others is very clearly addressed through Kaysen’s

musing.
When looking at Kaysen’s work, I think that it is important to acknowledge not only its strengths but its weaknesses. Kaysen’s accounts of her almost two year stint in a psychiatric hospital can be summed up quite succinctly: she does not give the reader enough. Keeping in mind that this is a memoir and so every detail of her time at McLean cannot be guaranteed to be accounted for, Kaysen’s account leaves the reading wanting more and feeling like only a little was received. Kaysen introduces the different characters she around during her stay and yet the descriptions are bare. The reader is destined to only learn a little about each character and even that information makes them almost easy to forget. Though Kaysen is in no way a psychiatrist, the people she presents are so complex the reader cannot hope to wish for a more in-depth look at them, only to be left disappointed.
Susanna Kaysen’s memoir provides an interesting story line that tells of the experiences that she and other patients have had. Kaysen, in addition to recounting the events during her hospitalization, also provides ideas and theories about mental illness and the people suffering from it. Kaysen’s memoir gives the reader the opportunity to question what is “sane” and what is “insane”. Kaysen’s ability to write a memoir with such clarity is an act in itself that makes people question the stigmas we associate with mental illness.