Girl Interrupted Susanna Kaysen Analysis

Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, is a memoir that centers around feelings of fear, comfort, and control. These are evident in the scene where Kaysen is speaking with Jim Watson, who wants to take her away from the institution, the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and after Susanna gets out, the societal distancing from those associated with disorders. While used differently throughout the memoir, they serve to drive home divisions between those who “slip into a parallel universe” (Susanna Kaysen, 5), and those who do not.
Kaysen relies on the comfort of the institution to remain safe. when she confronts Jim Watson early on in the memoir, he asks, “What do they do to you in here?” to which she responds, “Nothing. They don’t

do anything” (Kaysen, 26). While Susanna may be comfortable in the walls of mental institution, she is at the mercy of its control and is fearful of the outside world. She begins making excuses, and defends the lifestyle she has now grown accustomed to: “’It’s not really that bad,” I said, but I was used to it and he wasn’t” (Kaysen, 26). In the film, much like the novel, Susanna has become comfortable in the controlled environment that she is a part of, and recognizes that she can not, at this point, function in normal society. In fact, she’s been out of a “normal” society for so long that she rejects the thought of leaving the institution, something she was adamant about doing when she first arrived there. This is pronounced when presented with the opportunity to run away, Kaysen says “They’d come after me [...] Thanks for offering. It’s sweet of you” (Kaysen, 27). The film, which has Winona Ryder as Kaysen, and Jared Leto as her boyfriend, portrays this scene as a confrontation that fittingly displays her inability to be apart of society. Where Winona Ryder’s version of Kaysen finally admits to her condition out of fear, the more somber memoir version simply says, “I’m here now, Jim [... ] I think I’ve got to stay here” (Kaysen, 27). Her self-assurance has been replaced with solace, and has relinquished all control to the hospital. Moreover, in this moment Kaysen acknowledges the hospital as a home and a jail cell. She recognizes that her confinement also acts a cushiony shelter that exempts her from responsibility and cripples her as a result. In the same way that the overprotective, helicopter parent shackles and restricts the growth of their child, creating an adult that is frightened of society outside the confines of his home, Kaysen can find comfortability in being controlled and consequently develops an anxiety because of it.
In “Bare Bones,” Kaysen delves deeper into the idea of freedom born of control.

“In a strange way we were free,” she says, “We had nothing more to lose” (Kaysen, 94). Hitting a metaphorical rock bottom and stripped of self-determination, Kaysen and her friends embrace their confinement. However, their freedom is marred by a great deal of control. They are constantly being checked on, monitored, and escorted for the most menial tasks. Furthermore, they are able to refrain from being accountable or responsible in this fraudulent, fragile

power.
These ruling ideas of fear, comfort, and control lead Kaysen to question whether or not she actually has a mental illness.

Accordingly, there is a comfort in her label as a mentally ill person. However, there is clearly more control than she is privy to. In “Borderline Personality Disorder,” she defines the illness straight out of the pschology handbook of the time:
“An essential feature of this disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and mood, beginning in early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. A marked and persistent identity disturbance is almost invariably present. This is often pervasive, and is manifested by uncertainty about several life issues, such as self-image, sexual orientation, long-term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers to have, and which values to adopt. The person often experiences this instability of self-image as chronic feelings of emptiness and boredom” (Kaysen,

147).

It doesn’t take a doctor to understand that so many people who are not mentally ill can be classified, or, at the very least, associate with the diagnosis. In fact, it could be said that most young adults could fit the description of what doctors of the time would have considered mentally unstable. And, as Kaysen told Jim Watson, the doctors don’t do much of anything for them at all, they control them, striking fear of the outside into their being, all while comforting, or controlling, them with medication and supervision.
“Stigmatography” explains how the institution works similarly to jail. Kaysen comically writes, “The hospital had an address, 115 Mill Street. This was to provide some cover if one of us were well enough to apply for a job while still incarcerated. It gave about as much protection as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would have” (Kaysen, 123). Interestingly enough, her use of the word incarcerated supplies the thought that the hospital is more of a holding cell than a place where the sick go to get better. More so is the the fact that there is a need to “provide cover” for when they apply for a job. Its painfully clear that there is a lack of acceptance for the people of McLean, who are feared by the rest of the society because they are perceived to be insane. “Applying for a job, leasing an apartment, getting a driver’s license: all problematic. The drivers-license application even asked, Have you ever been hospitalized for mental illness? Oh, no, I just loved Belmont so much I decided to move to 115 Mill Street. [...] I know what you are, said his look” (Kaysen, 123). The blatant humor that Kaysen presents her plight with notes that this type of scenario is very common, and that she should not expect anything more. This, however, creates more questions: “What could we do? Could we get up every morning and take showers and put on clothes and go to work? Could we think straight? Could we not say crazy things when they occurred to us?” (Kaysen, 124). Besides the disconnect between the employer and the potential employee, is the question of whether or not one of them could function like one of us. There is a comfort in that which is similar, and fear of what can not be understood. Therefore, one would think that if the candidate was like the us then they would be welcomed as a “normal” person. Susanna goes on to explain how this is actually the opposite:
“A person who doesn’t talk to herself or stare off into nothingness is therefore more alarming than a person who does. Someone who acts ‘normal’ raises the uncomfortable question, What’s the difference between that person and me? which leads to the question, What’s keeping me out of the loony bin? [...] If you’re crazy, then I’m crazy, and I’m not, so the whole thing must have been a mistake. [...] I need to know the particulars of craziness so I can assure myself that I’m not crazy [and] Are you still contagious?” (Kaysen, 124)

As Susanna explains in the beginning of the memoir, there is a fine line between sane and insane, and it doesn’t take much to cross that blurry line. This makes those who think themselves to be sane fear those they believe to be insane. In order to be sane, one must identify the small differences and control one’s behavior. They must compose themselves in a way that is sane, in order to assure, and therefore, comfort, themselves that they are sane. Interestingly enough, even Kaysen is not exempt from this division. She states, “Insane people: I had a good nose for them and I didn’t want to have anything to do with them. I still don’t. I can’t come up with reassuring answers to the terrible questions they raise” (Kaysen, 125). Susanna doesn’t want to be lopped in with the insane, she finds a great discomfort in society when she is identified on that side of the fence. Accordingly, she only “has a good nose for them” because she has spent so much time around those who are considered insane, and has been thought to be one herself. It seems that even Susanna fears the insane, something that she struggles with in her quest for employment while “incarcerated.”
The ruling ideas of fear, comfort, and control, reign supreme in most, if not all of the interactions and relationships of Susanna Kaysen’s memoir. These ideas take different forms based on their circumstances but effective establish divisions between certain groups. The lines themselves are blurred, but are very present. These ideas are best encapsulated by Susanna’s thought that, “she was safe, now I was really crazy, and nobody could take me out of there” (Kaysen, 104), and the starkly contrasting identification with the painting of the Girl Interrupted, who is “trying to get out” (Kaysen, 167).