Borderline Personality Disorder in Girl Interrupted by...

Girl, Interrupted by Borderline Personality Disorder Girl, Interrupted, an autobiography, follows Sussanna Kaysen an eighteen year old girl who finds herself being escorted to a taxi and being sent to McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Massachusetts. Only after a brief twenty minute interview with a psychiatrist she had just met regarding her failing grades, depression, suicidal attempts as well as her inappropriate relationship with her high school english teacher, she was convinced that she is in need of â€Å"rest† and agrees to voluntarily commit herself. Kaysen believes only a few short weeks would be sufficient however soon two years pass. Her first hand account of her stay at the hospital is chaotic and non-chronological which is†¦show more content†¦Soon after this episode, Kaysen experiences an infected tooth and is taken to a dentist outside of the facility. Upon waking from the procedure she becomes frantic that she had lost too much time and desperately begs the doctors to tell her how long she had been unconscious. After Kaysen returns to McLean, the girls visit friends in the maximum security ward and are sickened by the zoo-like living conditions. By the end of her treatment Kaysen is beginning to organize her life outside of the facility. She begins to experience firsthand the prejudice against psych patients as she desperately looks for a job. Kaysen also beings to rekindle her relationship with a previous boyfriend and agrees to marry him. Years pass and Kaysen visits Georgina and Lisa. Lisa now has a young child and a life in suburbia however Kaysen notes that she can still see traces of Lisas disorder shining through her new persona. By the end of the memoir Kaysen discusses revisiting a painting entitled Girl, Interrupted that she had once seen with her high school English teacher. She discusses seeing the painting much differently now and feels as if it represents the two years she feels she lost in McLean (Kaysen). She conti nues to argue that her condition wasnt bad enough to warrant confinement in a psychiatric hospital (Interview with Susanna Kaysen). Susannah Kaysen displayed many