Girl Interrupted: Mental Illness in The Movie

Introduction

Girl, Interrupted is a film released in 1999, directed by James Mangold. The film is based on a memoir about Susanna Kaysen and her stay at a mental institution. The film revolves around Susanna Kaysen who is checked into a psychiatric hospital, Claymore, in the late 1960s, following a suicide attempt. Susanna does not believe that she is ill when she first checks into a psychiatric hospital. In the film, Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Lisa, is diagnosed as a Sociopath. Susanna’s roommate Georgina reveals she is a pathological liar. There are no other diagnosed mental illnesses mentioned. In the ward, she befriends may other women with mental illnesses, mainly she is drawn to Lisa Rowe, who has been at Claymore for eight years, she is rebellious and knows how to manipulate the staff. Lisa leads Susanna down the wrong path and convinces Susanna to escape with her, and they go to Daisy’s home, who has been recently discharged. Lisa taunts Daisy for the sexually abusive relationship she has with her father. Susanna is shocked when Lisa steals money from Daisy's robe and still wants to run away after finding Daisy dead the next morning. Susanna realizes she does not want to become like Lisa, she calls the ambulance and returns to Claymore. Susanna finally cooperates with her therapy and is getting better. Lisa returns to Claymore just before Susanna is released. She steals Susanna’s diary and reads it to the other patients in the hospital, turning them against Susanna. After, Lisa reads an entry from Susanna’s diary about her. Lisa tries to commit suicide after Susanna confornts her. Susanna goes to see Lisa before she is released from the hospital, she is seen trying to convince Lisa that she will be released from the hospital someday, as well.

Mental Illness Portrayed

There are several mental illnesses portrayed in Girl, Interrupted. There are only a few mental illnesses that are diagnosed in the film, the majority of the characters are given no specific diagnosis. For most of the undiagnosed patients, you can assess their mental illnesses by their symptoms, dialogue, and appearance. Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental disorder that causes difficulty functioning in everyday life because it impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others. Another mental illness that is portrayed in the film is sociopathy, where Lisa is a diagnosed sociopath. Sociopathy refers to patterns of antisocial behaviours, including manipulative and deceitful behaviour. Susanna’s roommate, Georgina, says she is diagnosed with psychologia fantastica, which she says is a pathological liar. These characters show traits and symptoms of someone with a mental illness.

There are characters in the film that were not given a specific diagnosis, but you can assess their mental illness during the film from their actions, symptoms, and dialogue. There are a few characters that may demonstrate delusional tendencies. MG, repeats the word “Bingo” as if she is playing the game when she is watching men get drafted in the war. Another character, Cynthia, laughs when nothing is said or at inappropriate times. There is one woman that shows catatonic states where the patient does not respond when spoken to. There is a younger patient that shows child-like behaviour that is seen always with a baby-doll. Also, Polly is seen illustrating child-like behaviour, oftentimes, Polly talks like a little girl and acts silly. Janet can be seen as having an eating disorder, it is not specifically diagnosed. In the movie, Janet has a breakdown during a dance and claims that 74 is the perfect weight. All of these characters may not have been given a specific diagnosis, but you get an idea of what their diagnosis might have been.

Misconceptions/Accuracy

There are nine specific diagnostic symptoms for borderline personality disorder that is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM). However, Borderline Personality Disorder did not appear in the DSM until the 1980s, therefore, it is impractical to decide whether Susanna’s diagnosis was accurate or not since the movie took place in the 1960s. Of the nine criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder, Susanna is only specifically diagnosed with a few of them. Susanna’s file mentions that she is not able to make wise decisions, has suffered a breakdown, and highly intelligent, but in denial of her condition. Susanna pulls out the DSM and reads symptoms related to Borderline Personality Disorder, even though this diagnosis was not in the DSM at the time the movie took place. Her doctors said that she was impulsive, but only when it comes to being sexually promiscuous. This may not accurately represent Susanna’s disorder since impulsive behaviour is only seen with Borderline Personality Disorder when the behaviour is detrimental and interferes with a person’s ability to function normally and impulsive behaviour can be associated with many mental illnesses. Susanna attempted suicide at the beginning, there is no reason to believe that she has recurrent suicidal behaviour. Susanna’s symptoms do not accurately represent a full diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder.

Lisa is diagnosed as a sociopath, her file mentions that she has controlling relationships with patients, no response to meds, and her high and lows are severe. At the time of the events in the film the diagnosis would probably be Sociopathic Personality Disturbance, this diagnosis is where an individual does not conform to cultural or societal norms. This could include antisocial tendencies such as always being in trouble, being cruel or insensitive to others, and lack responsibility and judgment. Lisa enters the hospital with a high amount of confidence, but soon finds out that her best friend killed herself. Lisa begins being violent, extremely loud, and aggressive. She shows little remorse for her actions. On the night before Daisy’s suicide, Lisa taunts Daisy about her abusive sexual relationship with her father. The next morning, Lisa takes the money from the pockets of the robe that Daisy is still wearing while still hanging. Lisa shows no remorse or empathy during that night or the next morning. It is noticeable that Lisa shows most, if not all of the symptoms to be diagnosed with Sociopathic Personality Disturbance. She clearly does not conform to social norms in the hospital. She is often aggressive and is extremely impulsive, by her many attempts to escape from the hospital. She constantly shows no remorse or empathy during the film. Lisa’s behaviours and symptoms do accurately show someone with sociopathy.

Public Perception

During the film, Susanna is the only character that is released, allegedly healthy and well enough to live outside the hospital. For most of the time, Susanna is seen to be the most mentally stable and independent than the other patients. By portraying Susanna this way, her character is normalized making her more comparable to the audience. Although her diagnosis may not be completely accurate, portraying Borderline Personality Disorder this way could destigmatize this illness.

Lisa is illustrated as the “craziest” of all the patients in the hospital. Even though this film did a good job of representing sociopathic personality disorder, the way that the symptoms are portrayed may be seen as terrifying. By showing the negative aspects of Lisa’s illness and extremely illustrating them, the representation of Sociopathic Personality Disorder could make the stigma surrounding the illness worse.

Opinion on Movie

This movie was very well done overall, there were some parts in the film that stood out to me. For instance, all of the women in this psychiatric hospital all seemed to be pretty young, which was fairly odd since mental illness can and does affect women of all ages. Therefore, you would think that you would see a variety of different aged women in order to portray that mental illness can affect people of all different ages. I understand that in the film they were more so focusing on the main characters, but there were some characters you saw pretty frequently that did not have a specific diagnosis. I feel that in order for the audience to understand mental illness, it would be necessary to mention what each character is suffering from to get a better understanding. Overall, this movie was well done considering that it is an older film and the events were set in the 1960s.

General Opinion on Mental Illness

Mental illness can be a very tricky topic to fully understand, especially because each person can experience these disorders differently. Many people with mental illnesses are easily stigmatized and discriminated against since people believe that people with mental illnesses are violent, dangerous, and unpredictable, which is not always the case. For instance, Lisa in the film is a diagnosed sociopath, for many individuals when you think of a sociopath you might think of a killer, but that is not necessarily true. She lacks remorse and empathy, but that does not mean she is a killer. News stories always show violent acts committed by a person with a mental illness, which contributes to the negative images and stereotypes about mental illnesses.

Conclusion

The film Girl, Interrupted portrayed different mental illnesses that people can encounter in life. Lisa was diagnosed as a sociopath, which was represented fairly well and she showed most of the symptoms of Sociopathic Personality Disturbance. Susanna, on the other hand, did not accurately represent Borderline Personality Disorder, but showing Susanna this way may have destigmatized her mental illness. At first, the story begins with Susanna arriving at the mental institution feeling scared with an unclear headspace. She arrives and everything is chaotic. What she sees, is how society would perceive the residents. Susanna is confused as to why she is even in a mental institution because she doesn’t feel like she belongs. As time progresses, she begins to reflect on her mental health. Susanna had many chances to leave the facility. However, she decided to complete her stay, until she was stable to return to society. As time progressed, the audience can see how the residents are like everyone else, with minor differences.

The film was overall done very well, but they portrayed that women will mental illnesses are young since the majority of the patients at Claymore were fairly young. Causing people to think that women of all ages do not experience mental illness. Overall, mental illness is very stigmatized and discriminated against since people believe individuals suffering from mental illnesses are dangerous, violent, and unpredictable.