Girl, Interrupted

Michelle Correia
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

What would you do if you were abruptly forced to be admitted into a mental hospital? Unfortunately, this was the case for a young Susanna Kaysen. She is admitted for borderline personality disorder and ends up staying at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, for over a year rather than the few weeks she discusses with her doctor at the beginning of the book. The entire book is Kaysen's scattered memoirs, typically during her time in the hospital. Susanna, along with fellow patients Georgina, Daisy, Lisa Cody, Polly, Cynthia, and Lisa Rowe find themselves causing trouble at the hospital, while learning more about themselves and each other.
Personally, I enjoyed the memoirs where actual events happened. However, there are some memoirs that just describe Kaysen's thought process and I didn't really enjoy these. They were so specific that I personally felt a little insane after reading them. While this was probably Kaysen's purpose when she wrote, "Which is worse, underload or overload? Luckily, I never had to choose. One or the other would assert itself, rush or dribble through me, and pass on. Pass on to where? Back into my cells to lurk like a virus waiting for the next opportunity? ... Endogenous or exogenous, nature or nurture - it's the great mystery of mental illness" (78) this was not a feeling that I enjoyed. I thoroughly enjoyed the memoirs with actual stories because the characters in this book are actually around my age and all have very unique personalities. It was interesting to read about how being a teenager is different, yet oddly similar when one is in a mental hospital. I enjoyed reading what it was actually like inside McLean because when I saw that this book was about a mental hospital in the '60's, I was a little nervous. Old mental hospitals have shown to be notoriously cruel. However, even though occasionally McLean didn't always have the ideal treatment options, it pleasantly surpassed my expectations.
Although the hospital wasn't horrible, one quote in that book that stuck with me was, "Every window on Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco" (6). While the girls were in the mental hospital, they were all too aware of what was going on in the outside world and the lives that they could be living outside the walls that surrounded them. Their stay at McLean went on to affect their job possibilities, and even major aspects of their future like relationships. Kaysen reveals this when she talks about a boyfriend she has sixteen years after her stay in the hospital. He doesn't understand mental illness and, "often attacked my character - that character once diagnosed as disordered. Sometimes I was too emotional, other times too cold and judgmental" (166). I think this book was a good read and it actually highlights what it's like for people who are admitted into these hospitals. I feel like people often ignore how they feel and what happens after they leave and this book really hones in on those topics. Overall, this book is worth recommending - specifically to people who are interested in psychology, sociology, mental health, etc. It's pretty entertaining and I enjoyed it.