I read the book Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen for my book review. It is a non-fiction story of a mentally ill girl who is admitted into a psychiatric hospital. The book is filled with her own thoughts, which is quite interesting to know exactly what a mentally ill person is thinking about. She talks about how she attempted suicide, takes medication, has hallucinations, what she is feeling and what is going through her head. Reading this book definitely gives you the idea of what it is like to be in a hospital like that. It is scary and lonely, but you are there for a reason, to get better and no one can make you get better, except yourself. The book discusses the importance of recovery, and how living at a psychiatric hospital is very emotionally distressing. While Susanna is in the hospital, recovery is one of the things that the nurses and doctors focus on.
The cause of the problem starts when Susanna appears to be depressed. After review by the psychiatrist Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Her depression could be caused because she is the only one in her school that is not going to college after high school. It could also be caused by the guilt she was feeling because she was promiscuous with a teacher's husband. Borderline personality disorder is usually hereditary and linked to one of the parents. Although she is depressed, Susanna makes a lot of friends while at the hospital and doesn't want to leave because of them. Susanna's borderline personality seems to be caused by biological factors and social factors, which is the same as the psychodynamic model. The attempts to change these maladaptive emotions do little good to psychodynamic intervention efforts. .
In conclusion, I feel that this is a very good book that I would recommend to anyone. I learned how deep a person with a mental illness thinks. Everything about them is deep and intense.
