De La Rosa 1

Gregory De La Rosa
Professor Kane
English 115
29 November 2016
Essay 3 first draft
People usually think of insanity as a person who is not able to control their actions or
think like everyone else. In the novel, Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen people would ask
Susanna what is wrong with her. They did this in order to confirm they are healthy and do not
have any type of mental illness. The main distinction between the sane and insane is the one who
holds the power because they are able to label who is sane and who is not. Power in this case
means the one who people give the right to make the law. For example, the government have the
power to label who is insane. The power also means what people consider is the norm because
people who typically do not follow the normal standards are looked as outcast. Since the
majority of the people have a specific way of acting in public they are quick to notice if someone
is doing something that is outside of the norm.
The power is typically given to the person who the people see is the most stable that can
control a country. People look up to these figures and act like they do so no one will point them
out. People who rebel against the government are considered insane for making such irrational
decisions. Which is why people give the power to the sanest person, so that they can be an
example on how to behave properly. Valerie who was the head nurse in the novel Girl,
Interrupted acts like the model of how the women were supposed to act. Valerie does not directly
tell the girls that they should act like her, but she has a lot of power in that facility so she judges
how sick the girls are by how far apart they act from her (Kaysen 83).

De La Rosa 2
When someone follows the normal standards of a person they are considered sane
because they act like everyone else. However, when someone decides to question the standards
and act different to most common belief, is when people start to question the sanity of the person.
Susanna was a victim of this type of way of thinking because she did not have the same
ambitions as everyone else around her. Everyone around her wanted to become successful in life
and obeyed the rules that allowed them to become successful, not Susanna. For example, when
she had a written assignment for her history class, she refused to do it because she stated that she
had nothing to talk about the topic. She was challenging the authority, which someone who is
sane does not think of doing. Since they were told from the beginning that they are supposed to
follow the authority.
Someone who is insane is said that they cannot function in the real world according to
their rules. People use this as a type of defense so they will not have to go to prison. Like Lisa
there many social path who enjoy inflicting pain on other people. And many criminals are called
insane so they will not have to go to court also to get the right amount of help that they need.
Because of this being called insane is terrifying to most people because it is associated with
criminals. Which explains why people follow the rules that the authority puts so they do not have
to be called insane. Unlike Susanna who does not disobeys authority like McMurphy does, but
she does not give into the social expectations that people expect a high class woman to behave.
Mcmurphy was a type of guy who always liked to challenge the authority because he is a
nonconformist. Due to this they sent him to the mental hospital without knowing what is actually
wrong with him because they considered him too dangerous. This is the same with the girls at
Mclean who would always be wild and destructive. However, once the riots started they calmed
down because they said that the people on the outside are doing their job and going against the

De La Rosa 3
authority. Since the authority does not want people to rebel against them they have to categorized
the people who so they can have a bad connotation among themselves. The consequence to
patients hospitalized in such an environment-the powerless, depersonalization, segregation,
mortification and self-labeling seem undoubtedly contertherapeutic. (I.E. Farber). People who
come out from mental hospital come out feeling ashamed for being different. Most people do not
want to be associated with people with mental issues. So people look at the ones who are
considered insane as people who need special care so they can become accustom to the norms.
When Susanna went to her interview, the doctor made her believe that the interview was
three hours long when in reality, the interview was only an hour and a half (Kaysen 72).
Therefore, it was the doctor that made her question her sanity. Modern Primatology teaches us
that we humans cannot psychologically tolerate living in a universe that strive to have a
definitive vision of the world. (Nardor and Portelli). There are times where people look for the
simplest explanation to solve their problems or their question. So they are going to believe
whatever the expert tells them is the truth. Throughout the whole book, Susanna seemed to be
normal except in one case where she started to doubt her own existence and searcher for her
bones. This was a new thing for Susanna because with everything that was going on around her
and being inside of the hospital finally made her crack. She had suicidal thoughts before this, but
this was not due to some mental illness instead, it was due to all of the things that were
happening around her that made her feel lost. With the protest of civil rights, Vietnam war, and
women rights she must have felt lost in this movement since she was still a young adult.
The doctor who had the power in that situation saw that Susanna was not a normal person
and decided that she needed to be rehabilitated because he claimed that she had border line
personality disorder. The DSMV is the book that doctors use in order to classify the types of

De La Rosa 4
mental disorders. It is not uncommon for the people who write this book to make changes to the
mental disorders. For example, homosexuality used to be classified as a mental disorder until
recently they took it out. In other words, the doctors could convince people that they are mentally
ill because they are not normal as other people. Personally, I never subscribed to the mental
illness view of lesbianism, even in my first fearful months of grappling with a surprising new
and temporarily uncomfortable identity. (Cahn). Many mental illnesses are what people think
they are something that is wrong with the brain. For example, Susannas border line disorder
could be a common thing in the future where it is not categorize as a mental illness. Since they
are the one who holds the power they can decide what makes people insane.
The one who holds the power are allowed to decided who is mentally ill because people
are afraid to be seen as insane. By power, means the one who can make changes to the social
standards. Since people put too much trust on doctors, they assume that everything that they say
is correct. However, that is not the case because they can tell you one thing and eventually start
believing it and start developing the symptoms.