Table of Contents

IN

About the Author

SUSANNA KAYSEN has written the novels Asa, As I Knew Him and Far Afield and the memoirs Girl, Interrupted and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

"Poignant, honest and triumphantly funny ... [a] compelling and heartbreaking story." —The New York Times Book Review

"In  piercing  vignettes shadowed  with  humor [Kaysen]  brings  to life the routine of  the ward and its patients.... Kaysen's meditations on young  women  and  madness  form  a  trenchant  counterpoint  to  the copies of her medical records that are woven into the text." —The New Yorker

"An eloquent and unexpectedly funny memoir." —Vanity Fair

''Memorable and stirring ...   fascinating. A powerful examination  not only of Kaysen's own imperfections  but of  those of  the system  that diagnosed her." —Vogue

"Tough-minded ... darkly comic ... written with indelible clarity." —Newsweek

"[A]n account of a disturbed girl's unwilling passage into womanhood ... and here is the girl, looking into our faces with urgent eyes." —Washington Post Book World

"At  turns  wry,  sardonic,  witty  ... an  unusual  glimpse  of  a  young woman's  experience  with  insanity.  Kaysen  presents  a  meaningful analysis of  the dual and contradictory  nature of  psychiatric hospital­ization as both refuge and prison." —San Francisco Chronicle

In these brief, direct essays, the author takes a sharp-eyed look back at her nearly two-year stay in a Boston psychiatric hospital 25 years ago. In April 1967, after a 20-minute interview with a psychiatrist she had never seen before, Kaysen, then 18 years old, was admitted to McLean Hospital, diagnosed as a borderline personality. In this series of tightly focused glimpses into this institutionalized world, she writes with a disarming and highly credible suspension of judgment about herself, other patients, the staff and the rules--overt and unspoken--that governed their interactions. Kaysen is an insightful witness, who was able even then to point out to her psychotherapist that his automobiles (a station wagon, a sedan and a sports car) were apt metaphors for his psyche: ego, superego and id. She offers a convincing and provocative taxonomy of experienced insanity--one type characterized by a sped-up, widely inclusive hyper-awareness and another by sluggish response and a sense of time drastically slowed. Supplying reproductions of documents accompanying her stay at McLean, Kaysen ( Asa, As I Knew Him ) draws few conclusions but makes an eloquent case for a broader view of ``normal'' behavior. Author tour. (June)

"Poignant, honest and triumphantly funny ... [a] compelling and heartbreaking story." -The New York Times Book Review

"In piercing vignettes shadowed with humor [Kaysen] brings to life the routine of the ward and its patients.... Kaysen's meditations on young women and madness form a trenchant counterpoint to the copies of her medical records that are woven into the text." -The New Yorker

"An eloquent and unexpectedly funny memoir." -Vanity Fair

''Memorable and stirring ... fascinating. A powerful examination not only of Kaysen's own imperfections but of those of the system that diagnosed her." -Vogue

"Tough-minded ... darkly comic ... written with indelible clarity." -Newsweek

"[A]n account of a disturbed girl's unwilling passage into womanhood ... and here is the girl, looking into our faces with urgent eyes." -Washington Post Book World

"At turns wry, sardonic, witty ... an unusual glimpse of a young woman's experience with insanity. Kaysen presents a meaningful analysis of the dual and contradictory nature of psychiatric hospital ization as both refuge and prison." -San Francisco Chronicle