Susanna Kaysen's Journal-Memoir, Girl, Interrupted
Sane or normal people have wondered at one time or another what it is like in a
hospital that houses the insane. Susanna Kaysen opens the door to the reality and true
insanity of being a patient in a mental hospital renowned for famous ex-patients,
including Ray Charles Sylvia Plath, and James Taylor in her book, Girl, Interrupted. She
stays focused on reality and her idea of perception as well as the friendships she acquires in her two year stay at McLean Hospital and her recovery period once she is released.
Girl, Interrupted, written by Susanna Kaysen, is a documentation of her tay in a
psychiatric hospital including events building up to her taxi ride to the hospital and her recovery period outside the hospital. Susanna voluntarily admitted herself into McLean Hospital on April 27, 1967 after just one visit with a psychiatrist who had pushed her into thinking she needed "rest". She was told that she would only be staying for a couple of weeks. Those couple of weeks turned into six hundred seventeen days.
Susanna's roommate, Georgina, was admitted after a tidal wave of darkness had
broke over he head in a theater. When she realized noone else was experiencing this
sensation, she knew she had gone crazy. along with Georgina, Suanna was friends with a
group of girls including Lisa, Polly, and Cynthia. Lisa never slept and rarely ate so she was always thin and yellow. She was very independent and often ran away. Even though she was always caught, she yearned for that freedom that she had tasted on the outside. Polly was a girl who had set herself on fire using gasoline at an age when she wasn't even old enough to drive. Her neck and cheeks were scarred the most, but strangely enough she was never unhappy. Kind and comforting to others, Polly never complained and always had time to listen to other people. Not much was said about Cynthia except that she would have electric shock therapy once a week and would come back crying.
Susanna randomly mentions encounters with other patients but they never stay
fixed in the storyline. One such character was Wade, Georgina's boyfriend. Wade was
seventeen and enraged about almost everything. Susanna recounts listening to him tell
stories about his father one day. According to Wade, his father was spy who had killed
dozens...
... middle of paper ...
...character.
Whatever it was he was attacking Susanna would comfort him by telling him it was ok to
spend money at which point the attacking would stop. On one occassion Susanna and her
boyfriend visited the Frick. She viewed a Vermeer titled Girl Interrupted at Her Music
which she remembered seeing twenty years ago with her high school English teacher. She
had made a connection with the painting all those years ago and now she realized that the
girl had been interrupted from her music just how she had been interrupted from her life.
While reading Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, I opened my eyes to the reality
of insanity in this world and how we perceive insane people is the same way they perceive
us. We all have the same thoughts and processes going through our mind, but the ones
who are considered "crazy" actually say it out loud whereas the rest of us keep it to
ourselves. Maybe Susanna Kaysen wasn't really insane, but I do not doubt the people she
was institutionalized with were. Her perception and depth of reality is a bit more sane
than what most of us ever acquire in our own lives. That is what makes this book worth
the time and effort of reading.
LaPierre, T. A. (2012). Comparing the Canadian and US Systems of Health Care in an Era of Health Care Reform. Journal of Health Care Finance, 38(4), 1-18.
From the moment Lucy Winer was admitted to Kings Park on June 21, 1967, following several unsuccessful suicide attempts, she experienced firsthand the horrors of mental institutions during this time period in America. As Lucy stepped into Ward 210, the female violent ward of Building 21, she was forced to strip naked at the front desk, symbolizing how patient’s personhood status was stripped from them as soon as they arrived into these institutions. During her second day at Kings Park, Lucy started crying and another patient informed her not to cry because “they’ll hurt her”. This instance, paired with the complete lack of regulations, instilled a fear in Lucy that anyone at this institution could do anything to her without any punishment, which had haunted her throughout her entire stay at Kings Park. Dr. Jeanne Schultz was one of the first psychiatrists to examine Lucy and diagnosed her with chronic differentiated schizophrenia. In an interview with Dr. Schultz decades later, Lucy found out that many patients were
The most insane people are the ones who were kept sane the longest. In the stories “ A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “ Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl the women are both completely insane. They both kill the ones they love because they don’t want them to leave. Although Mary and Emily both have different stragities of killing them. They are both very sneaky about hiding it up and how they get away with it.
Though, Professor Armstrong makes very good connections between health care policy reforms and its impact on women, all of these connections are eclipsed by the values encompassed within the Canada Health Act of 1984. Health care to this day is provided on the basis of need rather than financial means, and is accessible to all that require it. Professor Armstrong’s argument is hinged upon the scope of services provided under the public health insurance system, and the subsequent affect of these reforms on women as the main beneficiaries of these services and as workers in these industries. However, these reforms were made to balance the economy, and the downsizing and cutbacks were necessary steps to be taken with respect to this agenda. Moreover, as aforementioned the access to medical services ultimately comes down to need, and the reforms to date are not conducive to an intentional subordination of female interests in the realm of health care. Therefore, I find Professor Armstrong’s critique on Canada’s public health insurance system to be relatively redundant because the universal access to care encompassed within the Canada Health Act transcends the conditional proponents of her arguments of inequality. In other words, I believe she is
An analysis of the US and Canada’s systems reveals advantages and drawbacks within each structure. While it is apparent that both countries could benefit from the adoption of portions of the others system, Canada’s healthcare system offers several benefits over the US system.
Many people are victims of sex trafficking and this horror must be stopped for the sake of the innocent girls and women who are being taken advantage of. Trafficking is a form of modern slavery because people’s bodies are sold for the gain of others against their wills. The steps that must be taken to prevent sex trafficking involve raising political and social awareness, people working together and the prosecution of traffickers.
The four major events significant to the foundation and evolution of the United States today that I have chosen are: the Positive and Negative Impacts of European Contact, the American Military Victory in the Revolutionary War, Slavery and States Rights, and Reconstruction and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. All four of these events from the first half of the history of the United States played integral roles into making the United States into what it is today.
What is madness? Is madness a brain disorder or a chemical imbalance? On the other hand, is it an expressed behavior that is far different from what society would believe is "normal"? Lawrence Durrell addresses these questions when he explores society's response to madness in his short story pair "Zero and Asylum in the Snow," which resembles the nearly incoherent ramblings of a madman. In these stories, Durrell portrays how sane, or lucid, people cannot grasp and understand the concept of madness. This inability to understand madness leads society to fear behavior that is different from "normal," and subsequently, this fear dictates how they deal with it. These responses include putting a name to what they fear and locking it up in an effort to control it. Underlying all, however, Durrell repeatedly raises the question: who should define what is mad?
The introductory of Canada’s health care system in the mid-20th century, known as Medicare, led the country into the proud tradition of a public health care system, opposite to America’s privatized health care system in the south. Though Canada’s health care system still holds some aspects of a privatized system, it is still readily available for all citizens throughout the nation. After continuous research, it is clear to state that public health care and the association it has with welfare state liberalism is by far a more favourable option for Canada, than that of private health care and the association it has with neo-conservatism. To help understand why public health care is a better and more favourable option for Canada, it is fundamental
Canadians do not pay a co pay for primary care visits. This is an encouraging factor for all of its citizens, regardless of social status, to seek medical treatment earlier rather than later. Interestingly, there are not many differences between survival rates in Canada and the United States for middle and upper income groups,
Throughout the world and the history of human’s existence, the nature of God and ourselves has been questioned constantly. Everywhere we turn, we see Insanity in our society today, and it’s interesting to give it a second thought, to wonder what it really means to be mentally unstable. As long as the universe goes on, living people may never know the answer; all we can do is form opinions, think, imagine, wait, listen, and develop sensitivity to all of our surroundings, where truth could be hiding anywhere, in anyone.
"Comparison of the Health Care Systems in Canada and the United States." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 25 Sept. 2011. .
Whereas in the United States, “Obamacare, depends on your job or income.If you lose your job or lose your income, and you might lose your existing health insurance or have to settle for lesser coverage(Ralph Nader).” With Obamacare the list of doctors are strict that you are allowed to visit, which is a big issue for many American.In Canada, “you can freely choose your doctors and hospitals and keep them. There are no lists of in-network vendors and no extra hidden charges for going out of network.(Ralph Nader)” Canadians say it is unheard of for anyone to go bankrupt from healthcare cost unlike in America where healthcare drives many Americans to the plague of
History shows that signs of mental illness and abnormal behavior have been documented as far back as the early Greeks however, it was not viewed the same as it is today. The mentally ill were previously referred to as mad, insane, lunatics, or maniacs. W.B. Maher and B.A. Maher (1985) note how many of the terms use had roots in old English words that meant emotionally deranged, hurt, unhealthy, or diseased. Although early explanations were not accurate, the characteristics of the mentally ill have remained the same and these characteristics are used to diagnose disorders to date. Cultural norms have always been used to assess and define abnormal behavior. Currently, we have a decent understanding of the correlates and influences of mental illness. Although we do not have complete knowledge, psychopathologists have better resources, technology, and overall research skills than those in ancient times.
I also thought the film portrayed life in a psychiatric facility accurately. There were staff members performing frequent checks on the patients, nurses administering medications behind a window, and patients hanging out around the milieu when they aren’t in therapy. In conclusion, Girl Interrupted displayed many accurate traits of the psychiatric disorders depicted. Susanna Kaysen’s memoirs provided a strong backbone for a film to show outsiders what life was like inside a psychiatric facility in the 1960’s.