Girl, Interrupted

Girl, Interrupted

by Susanna Kaysen

A really poignant memoir by Susanna Kaysen in her book Girl, Interrupted.  The story of her life at age eighteen when she was institutionalized for attempting suicide by overdosing in April 1967. After meeting with a hospital psychiatrist, Kaysen is placed in a private mental hospital near Boston, Massachusetts.  She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and is held there for the next 18 months.  During her stay, the author introduces the reader to fellow patients, nurses, doctors, and people who “pop” into her life.  She goes in depth into her own personal struggles and how one is treated in such a place.  One of the fellow patients, Daisy, kills herself and we witness first-hand the trauma and mayhem that erupts with the fellow patients.  The book opens the world into the inner thinking, confusions, and ways in which the outside (nurses/doctors) enter their world and respond – not always nicely.  During her journey, she questions the diagnosis and we see slow improvement with Susanna. She discusses prior relationships with teachers and other adults, rejection from family, and, finally, what happens when she leaves the hospital.  Near the end of the book, Susanna leaves and reconnects with other patients who have also created a life outside of McLean hospital.  The author does a good job of bringing the issue of mental health issues, at a time when it was very much taboo, into the mainstream.  Powerful read.