Book, 1993 by Susanna Kaysen In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele—Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles—as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.
Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.
Movie, 1999 directed by James MangoldFeatures: Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy
Tagline: Sometimes the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy.
Awards: Angelina Jolie won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
Have you read the book or seen the movie? Did you know it was a true story?
