Living in a Mental Institution: A Case Study

This paper is a consideration of Susanna Kaysen's autobiographical account of her time spent in a mental institution, Girl, Interrupted. Committed to McLean Hospital at the age of 18 after a brief examination by a psychiatrist she had never met before, Kaysen was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and subjected to the dehumanizing conditions of what was considered at the time to be the best mental health care the American medical community had to offer. The experience forced her to spend the rest of her life questioning her own sanity and the fundamental definition of sanity itself. Her account is poignant, brutal, and unrelenting, as she examines the episode that interrupted her life and changed it forever.

On April 27, 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen left her apartment and took two trains to reach the office of a new psychiatrist. He claimed that his examination of this pale, depressed, suicidal girl lasted three hours; she believes that she spent just 20 minutes in his office, and her conflicting medical records actually support both claims. Time became an important issue for Kaysen; for the next year and a half, many of her struggles revolved around trying to get a solid grasp on the passing of time.

At the end of his interview, the doctor insisted on immediately institutionalizing his new patient. She admitted herself voluntarily, although she did not perceive it as a voluntary choice. She knew that something was wrong with the way she saw the wo

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Kaysen her first glimpse of what her doctors and nurses really thought of her. She analyzes her diagnosis, "borderline personality disorder," in great detail, as though she is trying to find herself in the words of the diagnosis. She remembers that, at the time, her doctors told her she had a character disorder, a description she actually finds more interesting than the full, formal, official designation from her charts. She observes that the term "character disorder" made her feel that her problem stemmed from some flaw in her personality. This perception allowed her to believe that she could eventually find a way to fix herself. Although she recognized that most people, even many of the patients who became her friends, did not really see her, Kaysen actually seemed to draw strength from her ability to hide. She had an obsessive need to hurt herself, but her favorite method involved secret injuries. She would bang the inside of her wrists against the metal edge of a chair, punishing herself in ways that were not readily apparent to most observers. She writes, "Part of the point was that nobody knew about my suffering. If people knew and admired - or abominated - me, something important would be lost" (153). By Octobe

Category: Medical - L