In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she’d never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years in the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele—Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles—as for its progressive methods of treating those who could … could afford its sanctuary.
Kaysen’s memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a “parallel universe” set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.
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Enjoyed this book, let me say this first as we do know movies doesn’t give the deep depiction as the book does, it really opened my eyes into how some people can deal with mental issues.
The thrill is in the sauce. The factual accounts derived from Susanna Kaysen’s extended stay at a New England Sanitarium colors the fantasmic world some may have envisioned of counter-culture fairy tales, and darkens it as a cautionary tale to those who may boldly travel back to such times for inspired policies of our own future.
Kaysen glistens her experience with ups and downs, but does not cast such a dark shadow over the stigma from women of the late ‘60s that had been locked up for mere sexuality, as opposed to real mental illness. Although Kaysen did find her confinement necessary, and voluntary, not all had such pleasures of paying royalty rent in places like McLean.
I applaud her story with bright and shiny details that paved prose and seamless chapters into a full day read with no need for a break. She’s obviously skilled at narrative prose.
Once I started this book I didn’t put it down until I finished it the next morning. The story was so personal, so visceral, that I couldn’t do anything until I had heard the whole story. It’s the only book that I’ve read nonstop without food or sleep.
This is a hard-hitting, unflinching look at mental health from the other side of the window. Most people today think of mental illness as just fine, but the caveat is always it’s just fine over there, just not here in my world. Their world does not mix with our world, the world of medication and therapists.
As a young woman who has been hospitalized for her own mental health issues, this book resonated with me. Susanna’s vivid descriptions of life on the inside of a mental hospital reminds me sharply of my own time in a world of white walls, carefully ordered days, and daily doctor visits. I wasn’t there long enough to pick up nearly as many names, but the truth of her experiences is refreshing in the outside world, where you’re usually encouraged to hide mental health problems.
I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to those who are curious about what happens inside the minds of the mentally ill. This is only one example, but it is a powerful one. I wouldn’t recommend that young children read this, but for teenagers and older people, this is great. But keep in mind that this is one person’s experience with her own diagnosis, so be careful not to put this experience on everybody else. Everybody’s experience is different, especially considering the myriad of mental health issues available. If you remember that, this is a good look into a world that most people fear.
One of my favorite books
plodding and not so interesting
Throughout this book, there are many lists of opinions of doctors, nurses, analysts, parents and friends. In the 60s, the answer was always medication. Strong, narcotic medication or better yet, shock treatment. We trust our nails to this population of medically trained intelligent people. Yet I ask this, should we?
It’s definitely worth a read- it’s short so doesn’t take much time and it is satisfying in its directness.
Powerful. Magnificent and raw
My teenage daughter recommended this book and I’m so glad I read it. Powerful, personal look into living with mental illness.