Girl, Interrupted

Kaysen questions why so many artists, writers, and musicians have stayed at McLean, and lists several notable people who received treatment there, including Sylvia Plath, Ray Charles, James Taylor, and Robert Lowell. The author wonders whether the hospital targeted artists, or if artists “specialized in madness?” (50).

Kaysen explains that while patients were generally not allowed to access the hospital grounds, which she describes as “large and beautifully planted,” occasionally the nurses escorted patients into town for ice cream. These outings were only for patients who earned the privilege of leaving the hospital grounds; Kaysen describes how privileges could be increased or revoked depending on the patients’ behavior. Patients such as Lisa, who frequently ran away from the hospital, were considered untrustworthy and were restricted to the ward or required a nurse to accompany her, while other patients such as Kaysen and her roommate Georgina were allowed out in small groups.

On their walk to ice cream, the six patients were escorted by three nurses, who tried to keep their wards in line with their “nurse nips” of pinching, poking, and verbally reprimanding their behavior. Kaysen labels herself and her fellow patients as “lunatics” and claims that the nurses did not expect them to behave, and likewise the patients did not blame the nurses for correcting them (53).

On a spring day shortly after Daisy’s death by suicide, three nurses took Kaysen and four other patients into town for ice cream. Kaysen feels that the nurses were more comfortable that day, and guesses that it was the warm spring weather or the high nurse to patient ratio.

She was bothered by the opposites contained in the ice cream parlor’s checkered floor, which made her feel “itchy”, and she tried to ignore the black tiles and focus only on the white ones (54). Taking time to choose their flavors and make some dirty jokes, the patients and staff all ordered ice cream cones.

Much like the system of privileges, there is also a system of nurse “checks” (56). Nurses checked on patients at different intervals: five minutes, 15minutes, or 30 minutes. Kaysen laments the time she spent on five-minute checks, as the nurses constantly interrupted her activities by checking in on her, reminding her that another five minutes was “down the drain” (56). She explains that patients often preferred to spend time in the TV room rather than have their bedroom door opened and closed every five or 10 minutes. These checks continued throughout the day and night, and Kaysen compares them to a kind of metronome or pulse.

Kaysen lists the many items that patients were forbidden from using on the ward, including nail scissors and files, belts, earrings, razors, penknives, kitchen knives, forks, and spoons. The patients and staff ate with plastic or cardboard utensils, which Kaysen implies ruined their enjoyment of their meals. Patients could use razors for shaving but must be supervised by a nurse while doing so. This embarrassment and lack of privacy led to “a lot of hairy legs on our ward” (59).