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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.890092
EAN num: 9780679746041
ISBN number: 0679746048
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: April 19, 1994
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: April 19, 1994
Sale Popularity Level: 3162
Studio: Vintage
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Product Description:
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 subsequent two years on 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 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 documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.
Amazon.com:
When reality got 'too dense' for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant.
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Rated by buyers 
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This was...senseless jibberjaw..Truly that is the only word that comes to mind. The movie was wonderful, but I can see now that it was very loosely based on this book.. It took a few characters and added on to their personalities.. the book was mostly just rambling and opinions. Half of the interesting things that occured in the movie were not in this book. Those that love the movie will be greatly disapointed in this. I would also like to add, you will have in completely read in one or two sittings.
Rated by buyers 
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On the very first page of her novel(?), Susanna Kaysen says she had to live for two years in a "parallel universe" when she became a patient in a psychiatric hospital. In the chapter "Elementary Topography," she poses a question, how did I get to be in here?
The answer she gives, other than her being delusional, is that she was in a "state of contrariety." She goes on, "All of my integrity seemed to lie in saying No."
Two other chapters bear witness to the adversarial character of her illness, "Velocity vs. Viscosity," which deals with her obsessive thought patterns, and "Mind vs. Brain:"
"Whatever we call it--mind, character, soul--we like to think it possesses something that is greater than the sum of its neurons, and that 'animates' us."
In yet another chapter, Kaysen derides her former therapist, who was named "Melvin," and who was to become her analyst. She acts like she tolerated him as someone imposed on her, and says that she "felt sorry for him" on account of his funny name. In an internal memo, however, a nurse reported that she experienced extreme anxiety over her therapist being absent.
Part of Kaysen's "state of contrariety," then, must be seen in the light of an abject, back-against-the-wall helplessness caused by the mental illness. I pity Kaysen for her interrupted life. Her novel makes a compelling case for mental-illness research.
In the Charleston County Library, >Girl, Interrupted< is located in the "Young Adult Fiction" section, which is inappropriate for such a rough, lurid story.
Rated by buyers 
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Susanna Kaysen shares an episodic account of her two-year stay in a mental institution during her late teens. She recounts the ailments and behavior which led her to the hospital, while also questioning her diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, as well as the manner in which mental illnesses are treated. In order to portray her experience and the experiences of the other young women she encountered within the institution accurately, Kaysen recounts a variety of occurrences, ranging from the grim to the lighthearted. Among Kaysen's recollections are one girl's experience with shock therapy, her own endeavor to bite into her hand to ensure that she is "real," and the girls' humorous outing to an ice cream shop.
Copies of Kaysen's medical records are juxtaposed against her personal accounts, often making the tone of the former documents unsettlingly cold and detached. Her personal account is often moving, and even the logic Kaysen uses to explain some of her most unusual behavior can make sense. At the same time, she strives for a relatively objective account of her interaction with mental health professionals. Kaysen presents a strong case to support her belief that the line between "normalcy" and mental illness is often muddied,--a thought she summarizes beautifully at the beginning of the book, writing that "Every window in Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco"-- without becoming overly critical of those who diagnosed and treated her.
Rated by buyers -
Having PTSD myself from Wars and other things, I thought this was a great movie! I didn't read the book very first however and normally I do but from what I gather the movie in this instance was much better than the book...
I have read One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and in many ways this reminded me of that, only in the setting of a female dominated one vice a male one....
Maybe in the future if time permits I will read the book itself to see if the movie which I have already seen and truly thought was great stacks up...
If not...
It was that book which inspired the movie and it's a great movie...
And mental illness isn't just something that people are born with, some times they receive it through traumatic experiences such as tragedies or war or the like...
In my opinion it is something that really needs to be given far more attention than it is receiving and this movie sheds light on it like few have...
Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak
Rated by buyers -
Usually books are much better than the movie . In this case its the other way round . The book while interesting- is flat . The movie actually has much more going for it .
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