Pleitez 1

Erika Pleitez

Prof. Kane

English 115 MW

28 November 2018

E3.1: Susanna Kaysen as a Narrator

Sanity and insanity are separated by a borderline that distinguishes people who are aware

of the reality they reside in and those who lost their sense of the world because of false

interpretations. People who contain sanity, by societal standards, function well and have the

ability to distinguish real events from fantasy but those who are insane are unable to do so and

are more likely to resort to uncontrollable behavior as well as being labeled “mentally ill”. In the

memoir, Girl Interrupted, author Susanna Kaysen, who is diagnosed with borderline personality

disorder, describes her experiences when she resided at the McLean mental institution through

her troubled perceptions. Judging by Susanna’s obsessions and the delusion that she believes she

is not mentally ill, it makes her an unreliable narrator for the fact that we do not know if her

interpretations of her area are truthful or exaggerated because of her diagnosis.

It is difficult to believe that Susanna Kaysen is a reliable narrator as she constantly battles

between her own arguments in proving that she is not mentally insane as well as her descriptions

of her own behaviors. She claims insanity is just a matter of dropping the act and believes that

other people suffer from the same troubled perceptions and pretending they do not see them at all

(41). She may appear to be balanced between sanity and insanity for her awareness, but, in

several experiences, it is proven that she, herself, has dived further into the insane based on her

impulses, obsessions, and false interpretations. In one experience, Kaysen challenged the

audience to either believe her or the doctor in her time of evaluation which took about three

hours; although, she claimed it was only thirty minutes and proceeds to present evidence like
 Pleitez 2

“the Time Admitted line from the Nurse’s Report of Patient on Admission. From that I can

reconstruct everything. It reads 1:30 P.M.” and argues that she is correct while the doctor is

incorrect. This verifies she has an obsession of proving she is not crazy and wants the audience

to believe in her perceptions of sanity vs insanity. Susanna then challenges her diagnosis where

she questions what exactly is borderline personality disorder and continues to relate to other

illnesses, such as, manic depression or schizophrenia and states “that’s real insanity” unlike her

own where it is more of a definition for her adolescence (151). Although, Susanna contradicts

herself when she admits some instabilities, such as, self-mutilation or having a distorted self-

image, interferes with her life and it is usually those who are mentally ill.

Throughout her memoir, Susanna constantly battles in trying to prove that she lies within

the borderline of sanity and insanity. She questioned “Had I stopped arguing with my personality

and learned to straddle the line between sane and insane?” although, another experience

contradicts her argument where she wondered whether or not she is human by self-mutilating her

hand to find bones. Susanna’s doubting mind is trapped in believing she is not insane and that it

dives into the idea, stated in Descartes: The Solitary Self, “I am, I exist...I am a real thing and

really existent; but what thing?” and continues to harm herself to prove that point (Bramann).

She later admits “now I was really crazy, and nobody could take me out of there” (104) so this

relates to how it is difficult to see if she is a reliable narrator for that she takes drastic measures

to prove she stands between the borderline of sanity and insanity and constantly contradicts

herself in several experiences and she has, indeed, surpassed the borderline from sanity to

insanity.

Susanna may be seen as an unreliable narrator for that we do not know if her descriptions

are exaggerated because of her diagnosis; although, she has described a few experiences that

consists of logical and abstract reasoning that may possibly define her as a reliable narrator. For
 Pleitez 3

example, she further analyzed the inner consciousness where it contains two interpreters: one

that reports from the world and needs data and one that is the analyst and needs an overview, in

other words, she describes sensation from the five senses and perception from the brain;

additionally, Susanna describes an example where the interpreters have trouble distinguishing a

tiger from a bureau or if a train is moving (138-141). This view provides clarity because not only

do mentally ill people experience these interpretations, normal people also experience the same

and to Susanna’s words “doubting one’s own craziness is considered a good sign: It’s a sort of

flailing response by the second interpreter” and she does not show signs of insanity but more of

logical reasoning (141). This has a connection to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave where chained up

men interpret their perceptions based on the shadows projected on the wall by the sunlight from

the outside and at one instance Susanna mentioned “everything in the world is just a shadow of

some real thing we can’t see,” (122). Susanna’s interpreters can be seen as “deceptive; and it is

wise never to rely entirely on those who have deceived us once,” (Bramann). She also proved to

be reliable when she described her experience working as a typist where she had a difficult time

following rules and being reprimanded by her boss (131-133). It was odd when Susanna believed

it was her madness but she came to realize that all typists were women and came to the

conclusion that it was only sexism since the 60s were the time of fighting for women’s rights so

her perceptions were, indeed, correct and not exaggerated by her diagnosis.

Susanna dives too much into trying to prove that she is not insane that it does make her

seem insane; although, she may in fact be less crazy than other patients in McLean. For example,

she can be seen as less insane compared to the patient, Alice Calais, who, at first, seemed normal

but Susanna and the other girls saw that she was taken into maximum security and her room was

smeared of her own feces. Susanna is also less insane than that of Daisy who is obsessed with

chicken and laxatives and her room is even filled with chicken. In the film, One Flew Over the
 Pleitez 4

Cuckoo’s Nest, Billy, who suffers from stuttering, may be on the same level as Susanna where

they might have a distorted self-image and how Susanna attempted to commit suicide multiple

times, except, towards the end of the film, Billy succeeded before anyone could help.

Throughout the memoir, Susanna is labeled as the insane and her obsession of trying to prove

that she lies between the borderline drives away from how reliable she can be. It is almost as if

she will not rest until everyone, including the audience, agrees with her so that she can be

released rather than listening to those who have experience in the medical field, such as her

doctor in time of the evaluation. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, however, the main

character, Randle McMurphy, fakes mental illness in order to escape prison and expects to live

in luxury in the mental institution, does not focus too much in proving that he is not insane and

rather let things play out as well as motivating the other male patients to enjoy life. Throughout

the film, however, he makes plans to escape along with supposed deaf and mute patient, “Chief”

Bromden; additionally, at one moment in the film during a therapy session with Nurse Ratched,

he tries to challenge hospital rules about being committed and being able to freely come back to

the mental institution. This demonstrates how both Susanna and McMurphy have the goal of

distinguishing between the sane and insane and how both want to escape from the limitations set

by society against those who are mentally ill and to question why the several who are insane are

automatically committed and yet not able to have freedom outside.

The audience can assume that Susanna Kaysen is a reliable narrator based on how she

describes her experiences at the McLean hospital but it should be taken into consideration that

some experiences could have been exaggerated or she might have been dramatic in some cases.

At times, she can be reliable but because of her constant questioning of the world, how much she

challenges her own diagnosis, how much she challenges whether or not she is insane or sane,
 Pleitez 5

people may assume that she is crazy or her questioning is an act of defense and resistance so that

she can escape quicker from those who try to help her recover.