Girl Interrupted Susanna Kaysen Summary

Susanna Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted” is a memoir of an impacting component of her life. Her story follows a part of her life as she enters into a psychiatric hospital in order to better herself during the 1960s because of a drug overdose. Even though Kaysen plans on staying just a few short weeks, she ends up staying there for nearly two years. While remaining in the psychiatric hospital, readers are introduced to some of her experiences that she has dealt with and tells the stories of others who are residing there as well.

While Susanna Kaysen was 18 years old, she was discovered taking a plethora of pills which doctors thought to be a suicide attempt because of the overdose that followed. All the while at this tender age, she has already

dropped out of school and had an affair with one of her high school teacher. However, Susanna constantly denies she tried to attempt suicide to her psychiatrist. After a short time of interviewing Susanna, her denial influences her psychiatrist to advise her to take time in McLean Hospital in Massachusetts to work on bettering herself. After being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, her stay is extended from what she originally thought would have been two weeks, to a year and a half.
As Susanna enters Mclean Hospital, she meets several girls who are Polly, Lisa Rowe, Valerie, Alice, Daisy, Lisa Cody, Cynthia, Torrey, and Georgina.

All of these girls are in the hospital for different significant reasons, but still are there to better themselves as well. Throughout the story, Susanna describes some of their personal experiences as well. With many disfigurements on her body, Polly is admitted for setting herself on fire and is a victim of depression and schizophrenia, similar to Georgina, who is Susanna’s roommate. Lisa Rowe is hospitalized for being a sociopath and trying to escape McLean Hospital on numerous occasions and is always in confrontation with Lisa Cody, who is also a sociopath. Daisy is sent there seasonally during Thanksgiving up until Christmas because she suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder in which she keeps the carcasses of chickens. Torrey is hospitalized because of her drug addiction to meth. Even though every single one of these girls that are hospitalized is here for different reasons, they all are placed at Mclean Hospital for one reason only, to work on themselves. Although they are there to work on themselves, they end up helping each other out by comparing themselves to one another with the rhetorical question “Am I that

crazy?”.
As the story progresses, Susanna describes her opinion of her illness. “Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever” (Kaysen, GI). In my opinion, this quote means that it is ultimately up to an individual to define what they think “their crazy” is, not what someone else questions of them. Since there are stories of the other girl’s lives and glimpses of situations that they have encountered, it is easy to compare Susanna’s situation to theirs. I think that Susanna was not “as insane” as the other girls. I interpret Susanna’s situation as her having so many things occurring all at once in her life that she did not know how to handle it. She was only 18. At that age, you are leaving your childhood behind and entering adulthood. Things are of course stressful. Susanna begins to question how doctors handle people who are diagnosed with mental illnesses, differentiating the brain and the mind. As she comes up with her theory of how what is occurring in our heads, she sees how one part processes data, and the other considers it. This can be interpreted as having two perspectives on a subject.
A theme that occurs in “Girl, Interrupted” is liberty.

Liberty is a theme in certain sections in the story because that is what was taken from them. Susanna and the girls have many limitations on what they can and cannot do. Since they are at McLean Hospital, all of them also have many expectations placed upon them in order to leave the hospital. Those like Lisa Rowe and Torrey wanted their freedom back by trying to escape. They no longer have the freedom to do what they want. Their everyday lives were taken from them. These ladies are grown women who have to be monitored. “Girl, Interrupted” teaches you to cherish the freedom you have and to always remember that someone else is going through a rougher time than you are.

Responsibility is a theme in “Girl, Interrupted”. While staying in McLean Hospital, the girls have to learn to accept responsibility for their own actions. Also, while being hospitalized, none of them are in school or have jobs, so they do not really have to focus on those things like other people their age. All they are supposed to focus on is how to better themselves and realize that their actions are not only affecting them but others around them as well, seeing as how their loved ones sent them

there.
“Girl, Interrupted” is related to my life in several ways. I do not drink and I do not smoke. Being in college, that is what most of my peers participate in. When I say that to other people in my generation, people consider me to be “lame”, boring, or flat-out not “living”. I will admit, I do stay at home and go to work more than I hang out with my friends. However, I do tend to see myself as different from others, just like Susanna was comparing herself to the girls in the novel. I think participating in smoking or drinking at 19 can wait, it simply does not amuse me. But there are times where I do think of choosing to smoke because I do find myself being stressed out about school and work, but I have a strong mindset where I can convince myself that it is not worth my time. However, when people to call me boring, I do ask myself, “Am I boring?” Similar to “Girl, Interrupted”, there is going to be more than one perspective for one subject. Just because one person may consider me boring, someone else may not. I do not consider myself boring though, I am happy with not drinking and smoking!
I can identify myself with the character Daisy. Daisy has an obsessive compulsive disorder with carcasses of chickens. I have an obsessive compulsive disorder with scratching. It was discovered when I was seven years old. It started out as me noticing how much skin could cover different sizes of people. So when I would shower I would scratch myself profusely because I was in awe at how much skin I had. Skin just amazed me. It went from skin, to scabs, to even scratching my leather shoes. My parents would make me wear gloves to ease up the aftermath of the scratches. It took me a very long time to try to overcome it. I started easing up the scratches at age 15. I learned that I didn’t have to scratch myself all the time; I could just rub my skin. A dermatologist suggested that I just carry lotions such as Vaseline or Coco Butter to help with not creating a lot of friction on my skin. Even until this day I still go through rubbing my skin a lot.
Susanna Kaysen’s “Girl, Interrupted” is memoir about her time spent at McLean Hospital. She shares her experiences with trying to better herself and some of her peer’s experiences. Susanna shares her opinions on a lot of things such as what differentiates a person being sane and insane and compares herself to the other girls by hearing what they have gone through. ‘Girl, Interrupted” taught me not to take the things I have for granted, such as freedom and to realize that I have responsibilities. Susanna’s story also taught me that there is always someone who is going through more of a rough situation than I am.