Title: Girl, interrupted 

Author: Susanna Kaysen

Publication Details: New York: Turtle Bay Books 1993.

ISBN: 9780679423669

Citation: Kaysen, S (1993). Girl, interrupted. New York: Turtle Bay Books.

This harrowing and deep memoir recounts the story of 18 year old Susanna Kaysen, and her two year hospitalisation in the teenage ward of the McLean Psychiatric Hospital in 1967. Kaysen’s extraordinary memoir embodies horror and sharp insight while offering intense depictions of her fellow patients and the hospital staff. Kaysen reflects on her illness and suggests that sanity is a myth created to help the healthy feel normal She also questions how doctors treat mental illness, and whether they are treating the brain or the mind.

An unflinching memoir that provokes questions about our definitions of sane and insane, and the fine line that divides the two. A story that will challenge all you thought you knew about mental health.

View movie trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHeqq6b6Vtw