Girl, Interrupted

This piece is called Girl, Interrupted at her Music. It is a painting done by Vermeer c. 1661. It is this backdrop which Susanna Kaysen writes her memoir about her time at McLean hospital in the 1960's. If you have never read the novel, I highly recommend it.

I plan on speaking more broadly about mental illness. For those of you that are familiar with Susanna's story, you'll know that she was possibly questionably admitted to the mental facility in which she was a patient. The questionability of mental illness will be my focus.

What most intrigues me about mental illness is that 'crazy' requires some form of 'normalized' group for which to have a definition in the first place. How are you supposed to act and think so you don't get classified as crazy and placed on the margins of society?

There have been times when I've kept my mouth shut, and not voiced my opinion because I felt as though it would be too weird or people would think I'm nuts. Doesn't everyone feel crazy to some extent most of the time? Then you think, well if I'm thinking about being crazy, I can't possibly be there, can I? Because crazy people aren't supposed to know they're crazy...

But is the fact that one becomes self aware of their craziness mean that they have the capacity to become cured? Until I read Girl, Interrupted I didn't think that you could be cured of a mental illness or being crazy, because that would make you not crazy in the first place. I certainly thought they were something to be controlled and you lived with for life. If you could cure a mental illness, to me it seems like it doesn't fall under the category of a mental illness in the sense that we understand them.

A mental disorder is defined as a psychological or behavioral issue that one struggles with due to some form of distress. The DSM goes into much greater detail about this as well as categorizes each mental disorder. Perhaps if the distress is removed from someones life they can be cured? However, if that type of distress returns to their life, they can still fall back into their disorder, so are they cured? To me removing distress is a form of management.

With the case of Susanna Kaysen, she was concluded to be cured of borderline personality disorder. Mind you, since the 1960's the definition and characteristics of borderline personality disorder have been 'revamped' numerous times. If you were to read the definition that she provides to us, most people would have borderline personality disorder.

But how many little boxes must be checked before you cross the line from sanity to INsanity? To be there isn't a line between the two. I feel like many people who are deemed insane may simply understand, and view life a different way. I'm not arguing against insanity, rather the way in which its viewed.

Most days I feel insane or like I'm going crazy. Does my eccentricity put me on the fringes? I suppose that everyone will view insanity differently and most people will shrink into the shadows when its mentioned, and try beyond all to stay on the 'sane' side of the spectrum.