User:Elyonn/sandbox

Lead

Girl,  Interrupted is a drama set in the 60s about a Girl, interrupted from her own life. She tries to commit suicide and is rushed to the hospital. Later she is committed into an institution against her will by her parents. Played by Winona Ryder / susanna

The movie is Based on writer Susanna Kaysen's account of her 18-month stay at a mental hospital in the late 1960s. While in the institution Susanna learns she has Borderline Personality Disorder , which she is diagnosed with.

She is also able to hold 2 distinct romantic/emotional relationships and she is also a writer.

Cast

• Winona Ryder as Susanna Kaysen, the protagonist. She was eighteen years old when diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.
• Angelina Jolie as Lisa Rowe, diagnosed as a sociopath. Charismatic, manipulative, rebellious and abusive, she has been in the institution since she was twelve, and has escaped several times over her eight years there, but is always caught and brought back eventually. She is looked up to by the other patients and forms a close bond with Susanna.
• Clea DuVall as Georgina Tuskin, a pathological liar. She is Susanna's seventeen-year-old roommate and her closest friend next to Lisa in the institution. Susanna confides in her about life and Georgina informs Susanna about the other girls there.
• Brittany Murph y as Daisy Randone, a sexually abused eighteen-year-old girl with OCD who self-harms and is addicted to laxatives. She keeps and hides the carcasses of the cooked chicken that her father brings her in her room.
• Elisabeth Moss as Polly "Torch" Clark, a burn victim who suffers from schizophrenia. She is sixteen years old and is very childlike and easily upset. Georgina informs Susanna that Polly was admitted to Claymoore after her parents told her that she would have to give up her puppy because of her allergies to it, and in response she poured gasoline on the affected area and set it alight, leaving her face horribly scarred. It is later revealed in Polly's file that she was the victim of a house fire.
• Angela Bettis as Janet Webber, an anorexic. Like Lisa, she is abrasive and seemingly aloof, but is also easily irritated or upset. She is twenty years old.
• Jillian Armenante as Cynthia Crowley. She claims that she is a sociopath like Lisa, but Lisa denies the claim and states that she is a "dyke". She is twenty-two and is easily amused.
• Travis Fine as John, an orderly who is smitten with Susanna. He is later sent to work at the men's ward after he and Susanna kiss and fall asleep together.
• Kurtwood Smith as Dr. Crumble, a colleague of Susanna's father and retired therapist, who sees Susanna as a patient as a favor to her father, and sends her to Claymoore.
• Jeffrey Tambor as Dr. Melvin Potts
• Joanna Kerns as Annette Kaysen, Susanna's mother.
• Ray Baker as Carl Kaysen, Susanna's father.
• Jared Leto as Tobias "Toby" Jacobs, Susanna's ex-boyfriend who plans to escape to Canada after being drafted into the military.
• Vanessa Redgrave as Dr. Sonia Wick, the head psychologist of the hospital.
• Whoopi Goldberg as Valerie Owens, R.N., the stern but caring head nurse who oversees the hospital.
• Bruce Altman as Professor Gilcrest, a college professor with whom Susanna had an affair.
• Mary Kay Place as Barbara Gilcrest, Professor Gilcrest's wife.
• KaDee Strickland as Bonnie Gilcrest, Professor Gilcrest's daughter.
• Robin Reck as Theresa McCullian.
• Misha Collins as Tony
• Drucie McDaniel as M.G.

Themes

Confusion of Social Nonconformity with Insanity

Susanna wonders if her prolonged stay at McLean Psychiatric Hospital is justified. The doctor is hasty in his analysis of her and basis his diagnosis on preconceived ideas relating to gender bias. Her diagnosis suggests that “normal” is as relative as insanity is and Kaysen interrogates the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders definition of Borderline Personality Disorder, calling it a “generalization” rather than a specific case study. She points out that while she is considered recovered from that condition, she still has the first symptom, which is “uncertainty about several life issues”. While Susanna is speaking to her doctor melvin, she calls the rest of the patients “fucking crazy” and that she does not belong with them however her parents and the doctor think otherwise, and soon she also realizes that she’s not much different than them.

Forced institutionalization

Lisa calls Therapy- The-rapey which is a play on words insinuating that the therapy they are forced to undergo in the institution feels like rape (psychological) and says the more a person divulges their secrets, the more likely they would be considered for release. However on the flip side for people like Susana and Lisa who claim to have no secrets the option of release seems oblique. “Although the construct of the asylum represented an immeasurable tool in the pursuit to expiate mental illness, the respect for patient autonomy appeared to have been relegated to those without mental illness.” In 1973 the infamous phrase "dying with one's rights on," was coined by Darold Treffert referring to the ultimate prioritization of patient autonomy over beneficence.

Representations of being a woman with mental illness

The emergence of women's liberation movements in the sixties is of significance to the period Kaysen’s memoir is set. The rights as well as standards were set much differently for women than they were men. Doctor Melvin originally doesn’t inform Susanna of her diagnosis, deeming it was unnecessary for her to know. Eventually when he informs her of the diagnosis, he cites the disorder being more common in women than in men. Subsequent studies on the understandings of the linkages between gender and mental health since the 1960s and 1970s have identified a more even gender balance in overall levels of mental health as they have incorporated a wider range of disorders.

Isolation

The physical depiction of McLean is reminiscent of a prison. With bar covered windows and regular room inspections to make sure the girls are not causing harm to themselves as well as not trying to escape, the girls are subject to the mercy of the ever watchful staff. The theme of Isolation is exhibited in Susanna’s life as neither her parents nor her boyfriend (who quits after a few attempts) come to visit her in the institution. The theme of Isolation also serves as a protective shield from the dangers of the outside world as even Lisa complains that “there’s nobody to take care of you out there.” and people like Torrey are safe from an abusive home and drug pushing environment.