Editing Girl, Interrupted (section)

==Plot==
In April 1967, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen is admitted to [[McLean Hospital]], in [[Belmont, Massachusetts]], after attempting [[suicide]] by overdosing on pills. She denies that it was a suicide attempt to a psychiatrist, who suggests she take time to regroup in McLean, a private mental hospital. Susanna is diagnosed with [[borderline personality disorder]], and her stay extends to 18 months,<ref>[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5486864_ITM "Susanna Kaysen finds stability in examining youthful 'insanity{{'"}}], Knight-Ridder Newspapers, August 4, 1993.</ref> rather than the proposed couple of weeks.

Fellow patients Polly, Cynthia, Lisa Rowe, Lisa Cody, Georgina and Daisy contribute to Susanna's experiences at McLean as she describes their personal issues and how they come to cope with the time they must spend in the hospital. The memoir's descriptions of supporting characters gives the reader an idea of how severe each of the characters' circumstances are, which in turn creates a dichotomy between Susanna and the other admittees. Susanna also introduces the reader to some of the staff members, including Valerie, Dr. Wick and Mrs. McWilley. Susanna questions whether the doctors have genuine intentions to successfully treat their patients due to the lack of health progress amongst her peers. Susanna and the other girls are eventually informed that the recently released Daisy died by [[suicide]] on her birthday. Daisy's death deeply saddens the girls and they hold a prolonged moment of silence in her memory.

Susanna reflects on the nature of her illness, including the difficulty she has making sense of visual patterns, and suggests that [[sanity]] is a falsehood constructed to help the "healthy" feel "normal" in comparison. She also questions how doctors treat [[mental illness]], and whether they are treating the [[brain]] or the [[mind]]. During her stay in the ward, Susanna also undergoes a period of [[depersonalization]], where she bites open the flesh on her hand after she becomes terrified that she has "lost her bones". She develops a frantic obsession with the verification of this proposed reality and even insists on seeing an X-ray of herself to make sure. This hectic moment is described with short, choppy sentences that show Kaysen's state of mind and her thought processes as she went through them. Also, during a trip to the dentist with Valerie, Susanna becomes frantic after she wakes from the general [[anesthesia]], when no one will tell her how long she was unconscious, and she fears that she has lost time. Like the incident with her bones, Kaysen here also rapidly spirals into a panicky and obsessive state that is only calmed with medication.

After leaving McLean, Susanna mentions that she kept in touch with Georgina and eventually saw Lisa, now a single mother who was about to board the subway with her toddler son and seemed, although quirky, to be sane. Susanna's static mental health state and uncertainty about being "cured" when she is officially released from the institution sheds light on the subjectivity of mental illness. Individuals who exhibit emotions not commonly expressed are ostracized from society when in reality as humans we are all capable of experiencing mental health crises if strictly analyzed by a professional. Being "crazy" was her natural response to life's stressors at an especially vulnerable time dedicated to healing her inner child.