Caro !

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Micah Marie Caro
Prof. Kane
English 115 mw
26 November 2016
Essay 3.1: Early Release?
The definition of insanity according to the Webster Dictionary: a deranged state of the
mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) (Merriam-Webster). Susanna
Kaysen was referred after receiving some conclusive therapy about her mental state to McLean
Hospital, the mental institution where she committed herself. In her memoir Girl, Interrupted,
Kaysen goes through her experience at McLean Hospital twenty-five years later, reflecting on
her thoughts at the time, or her perception of what her thoughts were. She was released from the
institution, with the label of Recovered. The distinctions between sanity and insanity is in the
hands of those who have the ability to send people to mental institutions because a certain picture
of society is held against people to act towards, certain people hold power to determine what is
considered crazy and what is not, and once labeled crazy its not easy to come back from it.
Throughout her book, Kaysen ponders the actual meaning of the word insanity and the
different ways its defined and perceived. Her own sanity comes into question multiple times.
For Kaysen, I saw that it was hard for her distinguish the fact that she might have just been very
different and her actually being crazy. She was often described as defiant at home: never doing
school work, not wanting to go to college, never wanting to stay in one job, and so on. These are
mildly defiant things, yet it was enough to classify her as crazy. But the fact that I couldn't hold
a job was worrisome. I was probably crazy. (Kaysen, 157). Is that even a factor to consider

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someone crazy? I know people who find it hard to keep jobs they dont love completely, but we
dont call them crazy. Kaysen made herself out to seem more of a teenager who didnt want to
take the more normal path of life: go to college then get a job. Although Kaysen clearly did
suffer from depression, but she seemed more unmotivated than insane to me. She had outbursts
in McLean, such as searching for the bones in her own hand, but with depression does
occasionally come existential crises in different forms. Kaysen mentioned wanting to make a
living out of boyfriends and literature (Kaysen, 155). Kaysen didnt conform to her parents and
those who were in authority. My self-image was not unstable Their image of me was
unstable, since it was out of kilter with reality based on their needs and wishes. (Kaysen, 155).
Kaysen obviously aspired to be writer, and didnt see the point in trying in anything else.
Kaysens lack of motivation poured into other aspects of her life, causing those around
her in a higher authority to believe something was wrong with her. A certain picture of society
was painted for her to make her consider herself as an insane person, As far as I could see, life
demanded skills I didnt have. (Kaysen, 155). This picture was painted by her parents, teachers,
therapists, and anyone considered above her. Another famous writer, Sylvia Plath, was
admitted into McLean for suffering from suicidal depression (Beam). Depression doesnt
necessarily equal insanity, yet being admitted into a mental hospital for depression deems you as
insane. Why people were sent away to hospitals after attempting to commit suicide always
confused me. I would think that that would drive a person even more mad putting them on 24
hour watch, drugging them up, all in a place that couldnt feel any less like home. Insanity is in
the hands of those with the power to send people away. Once someone is considered insane, its
hard to bounce back from that.

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In Girl, Interrupted its very obvious that the fate of these patients rests in the hands of
those in power, but in One Flew Over a Cuckoos Nest, patient Harding wonders if the power
rests with those who are insane, Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the
aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he
could become. Hitler an example. (Kesey, 102). Of course, there are different kinds of insane,
and Hitler is a great example. No one was calling Hitler insane at first, they just thought he was a
powerful man. Now imagine if Hitler had attended a mental institute for a couple years before he
began his reign. Would people still listen to his radical ideas, or just call him insane and reject his
ideas? Kaysen seems a lot less insane than Hitler, yet who was listened to? Sexism definitely
played a role in her admission. It was even clear inside the hospital because there were more
women than men diagnosed and committed at the time (Kaysen). As mentioned in the novel,
within Frueds definitions of crazy and mental illnesses, compulsive promiscuity" was a
symptom of her disorder. How many girls do you think a seventeen-year-old boy would have to
screw to earn the label compulsively promiscuous? Three?..Six..?Ten? (Kaysen, 158). It
was a lot less likely for men to be admitted because the societal expectations were a lot higher
for women than men still is, but it was a lot worse then than it is now.
The credibility of Kaysens own novel is even questioned because she was in a mental
hospital. While she was in McLean, she was one of the most well behaved patients there she
almost seemed calm at the hospital. However, she did have moments of her depression showing
and other outbursts that I believe is bound to happen to anyone stuck in a mental institution. The
question of Kaysens credibility comes up in her book often. One of the most striking topics that
questioned her credibility was her misunderstanding with the doctor that sent her to McLean.

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Kaysen had never met with this doctor anytime before this meeting, yet he sent her away, and
she claims that they had only met for twenty minutes before he decided to do so. The doctor said
it was a three hour session. These time frames are so different that it makes us wonder: whos the
correct one in the situation? The doctor clearly has reasons to say her time spent with him was
longer than it was for more money. Yet its so easy to say Kaysens time frame is wrong since
shes the one thats insane, but whos the one that gave her that label? We cant both be right.
Does it matter which of us is right? It matters to me. But it turns out Im wrong. (Kaysen, 71).
Kaysen provides concrete evidence through her admission note saying that it was 11:30 AM
when she was admitted. She goes on to explain what she was doing from 9 AM to 11:30 AM,
from a twenty to thirty minute meeting, to waiting an hour for the doctor to make phone calls to
the hospital, to taking a taxi for half an hour, and to finally waiting to be admitted for another
half hour. This gives Kaysen a reasonable amount of credibility.
Kaysen and others who've gone through the process of being admitted into a mental
institution are most likely aware of the power that those who are considered sane hold. Feelings
of hopelessness and discouragement are easily some of the main traits within those who are
considered insane because they don't really have the power to fight back. Whoever holds
power is able to label a group of people and keep them under that label, making sure they live
up to it. Kaysens diagnosis gave descriptions that she didn't feel were completely accurate
because she can easily justify her actions, The person often experiences this instability of selfimage as chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom. My chronic feelings of emptiness and
boredom came from the fact that I was living a life based on my incapacities, (Kaysen, 154).
Sanity is probably over-diagnosed.

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Works Cited
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. Vintage Books, 1993. Accessed 26 November 2016.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Viking Press, 1962. Accessed 26 November
2016.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/
dictionary/insanity.
Beam, Alex. "The Mad Poets Society - McLean Hospital, in Massachusetts, was for years
America's most literary mental institution, a place that Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and
Anne Sexton knew well." The Atlantic, July-Aug. 2001, p. 96. General OneFile,
libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=csunorthridge&v=2.1&id=GALE
%7CA79807350&it=r&asid=e9abd48dc26d28a439b7f3c491e66dc3. Accessed 27 Nov. 2016.