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Summary: normal in an insane world
Review: Susanna Kaysen has captured well the nuances of the process through which the institution of psychiatry can be crazy-making for some normal people caught in its grasp. Her humorous portrayals of the absurdity of the world of the hospital and the surrealness of the situations she encountered there as an involuntary patient some 30 years ago are worth the price of the book. Furthermore, she details in a poignant way what she lost through inappropriate diagnosis and treatment. Her careful and well-reasoned analysis and deconstruction of the DSMIII's definition of the criteria for the borderline diagnosis should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the topic.
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Summary: amazingly accurate description of depression
Review: This book expresses, in amazing detail, the usually indescribable experiences of clinical depression. Susanna Kaysen doesn't portray herself and her fellow patients as victims or ranting lunatics. It's quite refreshing, since many accounts of depression, (especially those written during the Prozac craze), somehow romanticize mental illness, putting depressed people on some other level. Depression is definitely different for everyone, but Kaysen knows that it can happen to anyone. She's also unsure about the whole concept of depression, now that she's "recovered". I think that I appreciated this ambivalence most of all, being a "recovered" mental patient myself...
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Summary: Clearly sane author characterizes insanity and its treatment
Review: A peek into the parallel universe of the mentally ill, this memoir walks the fine line between insanity and sanity, protection and prison, keeper and the kept. The profound insights into humanity recounted over a quarter century later reveal that the mentally ill are as aware as they are transient. This book forever alters the way we perceive ourselves and our temptation to herd into droves of "normal people" while we each walk the tightrope of our own sanity.
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Summary: Come to grips
Review: Kaysen's writing is adept and manages a startling episode of autobiography. Hers is not a "look-at-me" proposition, but an invitation to an introspective re-evaluation of psychological health. Her super-sanity as an author offers, if not hope, insight into the parallel yet distinct worlds of we, the wierdos. Am I making any sense
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Summary: IF YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE YOU SHOULD READ THIS!!
Review: I read the book after I'd seen the movie and was disappointed in the movie. It left a lot of things out, added some stuff and really obscured the timeline.
The book however was captivating, I really had a hard time putting it down, and it's a very easy read. I enjoyed delving more into Susannna's mind learing what she was thinking during certain events in her life. It also puts a light onto early psychological techniques, which thank God have improved. One of my favorite parts in the book is were she starts to see her hand withouth bones, something that was mentioned shortly in the movie. The characters are thoroughtly mentioned in the book and even some you didn't seen in the movie, the funny thing is that Lisa the Angelina Joeli character didn't seem to play as big of a role in Susanna's life there. The movie seemed to focus maybe too much on the character since she was the more practical Hollywood mold, while the book of course is focused on Susanna.
Anyway, it was a fun book to read and an easy one too, if you liked the movie you should read the book to learn more about what really happened to Susanna during her stay at the hospital.
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Summary: Understanding a Mental Illness
Review: Right from the beginning of Girl, Interrupted the author introduces herself as an eighteen-year-old named Susanna Kaysen. She encounters a session with a psychiatrist she's never met or spoken to before in her life. The beginning of the book is thrilling and exciting because you're not exactly sure where you're going to end up. Susanna is then sent away in a taxi, which takes her to McLean Hospital. It becomes very real and clear about what is going on if you've had similar experiences in life. She stays in a ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital for the next two years of her life. By this point you really feel like you're right there with the writer. It all becomes very real and a little hard to read. This memoir of Kaysen includes horrible things that go on in the ward and at the same time she gives the readers a very clear description about the other patients in there. In the end the book brings you to a conclusion between mental illness and recovery. This book really showed me that life isn't as bad as I perceived it. I learned that when you think you've got it bad, you might not really know what you've got coming for you-because as you get older the real world can sometimes catch up with you.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is struggling with a friend or family member that has a mental illness. It helps you to understand what pain they're going through and why they say and think the way they do. This was by far one of my favorite books I've read this year and at the same time it was my biggest life saver.
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Summary: A journey of the emotions, not of the intellect
Review: One of the previous reviews said, "differentiate between shallow-reader and shallow-writing." This is exactly the case. Ms. Kaysen's book put a lot of things into perspective and even put into words many of the same thoughts I've had but couldn't express. How does one express that everything within is moving at such a slow pace that it can actually be sensed on a cellular level? Ms. Kaysen did that. Some emotions even intellect cannot properly convey. Yet Ms. Kaysen managed to do it. One criticism that I read said that it wasn't very informative about borderline personality disorder. It wasn't supposed to be. It's her story. She didn't know much about borderline personality disorder when she was diagnosed with it. Immature writing? A teenager's book? It was written from memories of being 18. It couldn't work written as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray or Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. It has a style all its own. A style that is simplistic on the surface, but complex and diverse underneath the skin of it. It connects on a level deeper than literary merit, and that is what draws people into it. If it's read it as one would read a classic, delving into the literary conventions of it, then it will probably be disappointing. But if it's read it with one's emotions, it'll be one to cherish forever. I found it to be an amazing book... when I wasn't laughing, I was crying because I found a part of myself in it. My sincere gratitude to Ms. Kaysen for her work and for sharing it with her readers.
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Summary: Madness Takes Its Toll-Please Use Exact Change
Review: As with most movies, there is a good book lurking somewhere in its past. And "Girl, Interrupted", is no exception. Author and central character of this mesmerizing memoir, Susanna Kaysen, gives us a well defined exacting profile of near madness. Tweny-five years after placing herself under the watchful eyes of her "keepers" at Mc Lean Hospital for psychiatric treatment, Kaysen reveals her two year stay in the teenage ward back in the late 60's. A time itself of diagnosed disturbance. Richly portrayed characterzations of her fellow "inmates" and their doctors vividly depict everything from suicide, medications, the meaning of a crazed life, and harrowing journies to recovery. I truly enjoyed this 168 page book. Possibly more so due to the fact that I, myself, can say--"been there, done that, bought the T-shirt." And agree, the interruption is not my life, it just may be those mannerless people around me. Thank you for your interest & comments--CDS
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Summary: Mental Disturbance or Just Normal Teenage Years
Review: I know I really like a book when I find myself always thinking about it. I was drawn to Girl Interrupted and whatever room I left it in.
From her unique perspective, Susanna Kaysen raises the question; how does society identify the insane. Are those who choose to live outside of accepted behavioral norms insane or do they become more vulnerable because of the resulting social isolation?
If you, or someone you know suffers from a mental illness I highly recommend this book as an insight. 25 years after Susanna had been discharged, she researched her 'diagnosis' from the DSM III. Being told she suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder she began to wonder how many other so called disorders have been removed from this new edition and will her disorder still exist 25 years later? At one time, homosexuality was listed in the DSM as a psychiatriac disorder. You won't find it in there now. Makes you wonder what will be taken out next.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: This book was well written and kept your interest throughout. However, it has been compared to the Bell Jar, which is unfair. This Bell Jar is more about a descent into madness, which this book deals with far less, and is the poorer for it. However, one of the central themes of this book is whether or not the author was in fact as ill as the authorities claim, so perhaps she had to concentrate on the ward and its inhabitants. The characters were depicted well and so were the relationships with various doctors and psychiatrists. This book is worth reading, but read the Bell Jar first.
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