The movie “Girl, Interrupted” is based on patients admitted into a mental institution, all for various amounts of time and is set in the 1960’s. The first person who will be discussed is the patient Susanna Kaysen and her eighteen-month stay. The second main character that will be discussed in this paper is Lisa Rowe. This paper will also pertain to various other patients who the author of this paper deemed important to the abnormal psychology class and its lessons. Starting with the main character Susanna Kaysen, she is from a rather normal family in the middle class who has a goal to maintain the “perfect” look in their society. Susanna sees a therapist who regularly talks to her about her day and her condition, which she has no idea
…show more content…
Although she does express some symptoms of a disorder, in class we discussed that everyone will show signs and symptoms of having an irregularity, but just having that does not justify a diagnosis. There are many instances throughout the movie where as a student in an abnormal psychology class would simply just state that there is an irregularity in Susanne but not necessarily a disorder. One example where she does not express the disorders symptoms is when she has just learned that her parents are sending her to a mental institution and she is being driven away in a taxi cab without even having spoken to a family member. She does not express the normal reaction of being scared and overreacting like the symptoms of BPD says she should. BPD states that there should be a fear of abandonment, if her diagnosis were true, she would have been much more impractical about leaving, feeling as if her family was abandoning her. There is also a side effect of BPD that states that she should have a devaluation of self and this does not hold true for Susanna. In one of her flashbacks in the beginning of the movie, it shows a married man showing up to her …show more content…
Torch displays echolalia, the repetition of words or phrases after hearing them, when the patients are taken out to get ice cream and when Lisa states what she wants, torch mimics her. Daisy Randone is entered into the mental institution for what I presume to be is an eating disorder due to the fact that she is only there for a short time and is said to only eat her father’s rotisserie chicken that she then hides under her bed until she gets fourteen of them which hits on the fact that she also has an obsessive compulsive disorder. The fact that she wants Susanna’s laxative pills suggests that she is addicted to popping pills as well. With all these instances taken into consideration, I do not agree with the diagnosis of Susanna Kaysen. She did not display many of the key factors that Borderline personality disorder entails and does not fit the descriptions that BPD has. As for Lisa, she does show types of sociopathic frames of mind but because of the results of comorbidity, she is also subject to having antisocial personality disorder. This is held true because of her want and need to be the center of attention and her arrogant
Although she does express some symptoms of a disorder, in class we discussed that everyone will show signs and symptoms of having an irregularity, but just having that does not justify a diagnosis. There are many instances throughout the movie where as a student in an abnormal psychology class would simply just state that there is an irregularity in Susanne but not necessarily a disorder. One example where she does not express the disorders symptoms is when she has just learned that her parents are sending her to a mental institution and she is being driven away in a taxi cab without even having spoken to a family member. She does not express the normal reaction of being scared and overreacting like the symptoms of BPD says she should. BPD states that there should be a fear of abandonment, if her diagnosis were true, she would have been much more impractical about leaving, feeling as if her family was abandoning her. There is also a side effect of BPD that states that she should have a devaluation of self and this does not hold true for Susanna. In one of her flashbacks in the beginning of the movie, it shows a married man showing up to her …show more content…
Torch displays echolalia, the repetition of words or phrases after hearing them, when the patients are taken out to get ice cream and when Lisa states what she wants, torch mimics her. Daisy Randone is entered into the mental institution for what I presume to be is an eating disorder due to the fact that she is only there for a short time and is said to only eat her father’s rotisserie chicken that she then hides under her bed until she gets fourteen of them which hits on the fact that she also has an obsessive compulsive disorder. The fact that she wants Susanna’s laxative pills suggests that she is addicted to popping pills as well. With all these instances taken into consideration, I do not agree with the diagnosis of Susanna Kaysen. She did not display many of the key factors that Borderline personality disorder entails and does not fit the descriptions that BPD has. As for Lisa, she does show types of sociopathic frames of mind but because of the results of comorbidity, she is also subject to having antisocial personality disorder. This is held true because of her want and need to be the center of attention and her arrogant