Girl, Interrupted: A Memoir Paperback – April 19, 1994

:[...]I swear, someday Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher will stop coming up in reviews. Probably when I stop reading books about mental illness. So, never. Anyhoo. Girl, Interrupted is where all those hard-hitting teen issues books began. It's not necessarily for teens, but older teens especially will find it accessible. Written in out-of-order vignettes about Susanna's day-to-day life in the hospital, and her final release, it breathes the material it seeks to describe. Like the author's mental state at the time, this book is fragmented. It's full of missing time and unconnected pieces. The language is at times chillingly beautiful, at times blunt and raw. I'll admit--I didn't even glance at the author's name when I opened it, so I didn't realize until the end the hugely important autobiographical nature of it. And I liked that. Because it allowed me to read it as a story, and then to re-experience it in a sudden rush as reality. It makes you think a lot about where reality ends and story begins, and it inspired me to write again. I hope it inspires you.plot . 5/5If you have a hard time following stories that aren't in chronological order, this one will drive you crazy. Ha. Ha. Okay, I'm sorry, that was terrible. Seriously, though, it confuses and annoys at some points, because it makes it hard to follow a linear narrative. But you enjoy it, because you realize that that's the point. Story isn't linear! Minds aren't linear! Susanna's life is anything but linear. She forms connections in impressions, not in time points that happen one after one. It becomes a sort of diary-like series of random events, a collage of vignettes that ends in one final, beautiful impression. What struck me most was how little was described about treatment, or "being crazy." It was daily life. It was being bored. It was philosophy. It was avoiding nurses. It was the sanity that people don't see because they're focused on the diagnosis. Loved it.concept . 5/5It's a brave and wonderful thing to write a book like this. People will revile you for it, or love you, and you can't tell which off the bat. It's also something that somehow feels timeless. It's very embedded in the 60s, but we know it's old-fashioned. We know it's this author's past. Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow it makes it feel like it could exist in any time and any place. The idea of just focusing on hospital years isn't new--Kesey did it, etc.--but the way it's structured with the non-linear narrative makes it a perfect representation of mental illness about mental illness. Form fits function.characters . 5/5These are all real people. Even the ones you hear little about feel like fully-fledged humans. You don't get nearly all of their stories, but you feel like you know these girls. They're clever. They're funny. They're irritating and moronic in the most interesting of ways. Susanna herself is often a quiet observer, adding little to the action, but you come to know her through every word. Her voice takes over. I really wanted to know these girls--even the ones who scared me.style . 5/5A painting in words. Seriously. It's not flowery or overly ornate at all. It's just beautiful. Susanna sees the world in such a different way. Her worldview takes over everything she talks about and makes even the most commonplace activities new. I read the last page almost ten times, the last two paragraphs, because they were so perfect. Every word exactly where it needed to be. A collage of images. I could gush about this forever. It was just beautiful. Atmospheric. Dark. Humorous. Amazing.mechanics . 5/5The inclusion of scanned medical documents was a great touch. It makes you realize how differently these papers and the doctors see Susanna's world, compared to how she sees it.take home messageA must-read for anyone interested in mental health, or the human condition. A beautiful example of prose.

I don't know why it took me so long to read this, having been a big fan of the movie since its release (so over 20 years), but it just struck me a few weeks ago to finally take the plunge. I am glad I did.It was neat seeing what moments did translate from the book and how the characters translated as well. Yes, there are some pretty significant changes as well, but I still found the book riveting, even if it wasn't intended to be, and very insightful about what Susanna went through, the diagnosis she was faced with, and what any of that even means.The movie is personal for me, as it mirrors a time in my own life. While I have never been in an institution, my time with navy bootcamp had elements in common. Strangely enough, my own experiences share a bit more with the movie than the book, especially in the structure and pacing, though I get that some of those aspects were dramatic licenses taken by the movie.This is quick, brisk read, and very much worth it not only for fans of the movie, but in general if you've ever didn't quite fit in with the norms of society.

IntroductionGirl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, is a riveting memoir about mental illness which will have you questioning your own mental state. Kaysen was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is an American author with several books under her belt spanning from fiction to memoirs. Kaysen has written a total of five books with Girl, Interrupted being the best selling and rightfully so. Kaysen bares all and portrays how her life was interrupted by her self-commitment to a psychiatric hospital at age 19. Kaysen commits herself after a short visit with a psychologist she had not seen in the past unaware of her rights to do otherwise. The story is told in a manner in which time is not linear and characters are revealed as they pertain to Kaysen’s agenda, which exposes various mental illnesses and minimally focuses on her own. Kaysen’s frank description of insanity and life at McLean Hospital will leave you identifying with the narrator and the people she encounters during her 18 month stay.Summary of contentSusanna Kaysen is late. This is a common occurrence for her as she makes her way from one train to another in order to make her appointment with her psychiatrist. Kaysen did not know this appointment would cost her 18 months of her life and much of her freedom. It is the spring of 1967 and Kaysen is being admitted to McLean Hospital because she has a history of suicide and the psychiatrist she just met classified her as profoundly depressed. Kaysen agrees seeing as the doctor who referred her stated her stay would be “just for a couple weeks.” She arrived at age 18 and left at age 19, with a month until her 20th birthday.During her stay at McLean, Kaysen encounters patients and keepers. The keepers are the nurses and doctors and the patients include some of the people she builds relationships with. Kaysen recalls the keepers and how “they didn’t like that. Touching us.” The patients, on the other hand, teach her more about different types of mental illnesses and give her insight on those illnesses. Kaysen introduces Polly, a fellow patient who despite lighting herself on fire with the scars to prove it was a kind and compassionate person. Lisa, another patient, is constantly planning her next escape and always voicing her lack of respect for authority. Georgina, Kaysen’s roommate, is preoccupied with her irrational boyfriend Wade who lives in a fantasy where his father belongs to the CIA. Then there is Daisy. Daisy is an irritable rich girl who frequents the hospital for the end of year holidays and occasionally her birthday. Daisy only cares about two things: chicken and laxatives which fascinates the others.The memoir does not follow time as it passes, rather it jumps around similar to states of mental illness or episodes of acting out as the keepers would call it. Kaysen reviews the etiology of mental illness and how the definition of sanity or insanity can be due to “society’s low tolerance for deviant behavior.” Mental illness opens you up to a parallel universe in which, “the laws of physics are suspended. What goes up does not necessarily come down; a body at rest does not tend to stay at rest; and not every action can be counted on to provoke an equal and opposite reaction.” Kaysen tells how time is different and works fluidly not linear. Kaysen tells how when you are mentally ill, the voice in our head has a miscommunication between ‘interpreters’. The interpreters fail to deliver the right message or one of them fails to support the message aligned with reality leading to what society would label as insanity.Kaysen attempted suicide and was overly flirtatious with older men, she was told she had a “character disorder”. It was not until much later that in her records she discovered she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Kaysen agreed with most of the diagnosis but stated it was not profound and though she knew it was not meant to be she had her uncertainties about it. She did not see herself fitting into the educational or social systems in place and “life demanded skills [she] didn’t have”. She dissects her diagnosis and noticed it stated it was more commonly diagnosed in women, alluding to the fact that the doctors were the ones judging. She notes gender bias for several labels given to women that would not typically be assigned to boys. By the end of the memoir Kaysen is considered recovered though she still continues to question her sanity in her day to day life.Analysis and evaluation of the bookKaysen recounts her experiences with others though her personal experience is rather lacking, there is omission throughout the story. We are not introduced to her parents or given much background on them or what they thought of her extended stay at McLean. There are mentions to her mother on the day of her suicide attempt and how her father is too busy to visit but other than that, nothing. We see her parents full names and her father;s occupation as a Director at Princeton on the admission forms but their existence in this memoir is rather nonexistent.Again, readers are left with the question of who Jim Watson is and how Kaysen was familiar with him. Watson was clearly somebody that had affection towards Kaysen seeing as he offered to break her out though she ultimately declined. I understand that the point of the chapter was to address a state of acceptance with where she was and her need for rehabilitation yet I still yearned for context. What was real to Kaysen at this point in time was “the vinyl chairs, the security screens, the buzzing of the nursing-station door: those things were clear.” Everything else was fuzzy and that is understandable as she had adapted to her environment and seemingly enjoyed the other patients company. This is one of the few explicit mentions about how she felt during her time at McLean.I think Kaysen’s journey of trying to understand her situation is one many people experience throughout their own life. The sense of detachment from her is critical as it forces the reader to make conclusions on their own. Specifically, the chapter about how much time she spent with her doctor prior to being locked away makes us question what is real and who is telling the truth. The doctor claimed it was a total of three hours but when presented with Kaysen’s evidence we are inclined to think otherwise. I thought this was intentional that because she has been labeled mentally ill, do we even trust her? Is she credible? I note a lot of parallels as Kaysen presents her struggles in a gender-biased society and now though she is recovered will there ever be a time in which people do not question the validity of her statements. And how will we and how do we treat and value input from those who have once been labeled as mentally ill?ConclusionI think this was a great book, which was easy to follow and makes the reader draw their own conclusions. To fear something is to not know it. The lack of physical contact from the keepers and the lack of agency the patients experienced is concerning; specifically for the women in society during the 1960s and even now. What we think we know and we actually know about mental illness is a generalization, Kaysen exemplifies that in her memoir.