Book Review
http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?id=175&type=book&cn=8
McLean Hospital
http://www.mcleanhospital.org/
Definition of Borderline Personality Disorder
http://www.borderlinepersonalitytoday.com/main/dsmiv.htm
Susanna Kaysen Interview
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/survivalsnatural/susannakaysen.html
Personal account of a mental hospital patient in the 1960s
http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/56/12/1499.pdf
This book review makes a good point of some of the issues in Susanna's life. The review talks about how yes, it is important to take a rest in a psychiatric ward but maybe Susanna's 18 month stay was more damaging than it was therapeutic. I agree with this statement because the people in Susanna's ward were a lot more insane that Susanna was. Hanging out with so many crazy people was probably more damaging to her sanity than living in real world.
ReplyDeleteThe review also states how Susanna has a very indifferent attitude in her writing style. She shows no emotion in the text and refers to the women she made friends with on the ward as characters in her book. For example, when writing about their suicides Kaysen shows not interest or remorse but simply states the facts.
Personally, I've come to notice that Susanna is quite selfish, which goes along with Borderline Personality disorder. Even when writing this book, Kaysen only shows emotion when the event applies to her specifically. For instance, when she was classified as promiscuous, she became very angry, and wrote about it angrily. However, Susanna shows indifference when it comes to the wellbeing of her friends in the ward.
It was interesting to see that McLean hospital is still up and running. They offer a wide range of treatments for an even wider range of disorders. As I was perusing the site I noticed that there are doctors assigned to specific disorders. So if someone were to be committed into McLean today with Borderline Personality disorder you would be assigned to doctor John Gunderson.
ReplyDeleteBecause I took AP Psych, I already had an idea of what borderline personality disorder was. However, this book, along with the definition from the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and statistical manual of psychological disorders) I fully understand the disorder. Looking at this, I can relate all of the symptoms to Susanna: patterns of intense, unstable relationships, feelings of emptiness, suicidal behavior, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe interview with Susanna Kaysen is like reading the book. She is very unemotional and up front about what she says. She was asked many questions about the book and the movie. Her answers weren't very detailed though. For example, she was asked if she liked the movie. Susanna responded with: " It was very confusing and I can't even say if I liked it or not. The movie is different enough from the book that it is different from my life. It reminds me of my life but it isn't my life."
ReplyDeleteIt's like she has no feelings about everything and it makes it seem like she an extremely boring person.
Reading this personal account is very interesting because you get to see what it was like for someone who had to be hospitalized for a total of 40 months: William Carney.
ReplyDeleteHe talks about how he moved around from hospital to hospital and how the state hospitals were the worst. He received shock treatments and attended group and personal therapy. Some hospitals though didn't even give him any other treatment than Thorazine (an antipsychotic drug). He talks about how he was taken to Belleveue Hospital by the police for over-ordering at a restaurant and how it was extremely overcrowded.
He describes the ECT treatments in detail. He received about two per week and felt like a zombie when he would eventually wake up.
I thought it would be necessary to post another viewpoint of a mental hospital in the 1960s era. This way, I could compare Susanna's point of view with this guy, William Carney. He was a little more psychotic that Susanna but the gist.