Preview

Girl Interrupted Character Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
435 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Girl Interrupted Character Analysis
Girl Interrupted Charecter Analysis
Suzanne
Borderline personality disorder is characterized by intense shifts in mood. This is often accompanied by periods of intense aggression, substance abuse, and self damaging behaviors. People with borderline personality disorder will sometimes attempt suicide impulsively in periods of extreme depression or anger. Often times people with borderline personality disorder feel extremely bored, empty, mistreated and alone. Intense feelings of loneliness usually are followed by frantic efforts to avoid being alone. Suzanne is initially institutionalized for taking a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka. She claims that she was not trying to kill herself, but only get rid of a headache. At the beginning Suzanne claimed that she had no bones in her hand. This fits more with a delusional disorder. Suzanne often exhibits spontaneous damaging behavior that is mainly sexual. Other spontaneous behaviors include breaking out of the hospital, stealing her medical files, and not taking medication. She also aids in drugging a nurse and steals a guitar from the art room to help cheer up another patient. Spontaneous dangerous behavior is one of the major signs of borderline personality disorder. Suzanne has strange ideas about her symptoms and diagnosis, the major example being the bones in her hand disappearing and then reappearing. She often seeks to be alone; shows many social anxieties around people and had a lack of close friends on outside of the hospital. These symptoms go along with schizotypal personality disorder. Contradictions to the possible schizotypal personality disorder would include that she is sometimes the "life of the party" which falls in line more with borderlines. She also desperately seeks male attention leading to her promiscuous sexual behavior that goes against the seeking of complete isolation often exhibited by others with scizotypal personality disorder. Her social anxieties are not clear in the movie

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    CASE STUDY ELLEN

    • 1359 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Helen has met 6 DSM criteria for that disorder, and clearly had a plan to take action, along with having a poor appatiate and feeling depressed.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    According to Rathus, borderline disorder is the instability of mood, having chaotic personal relations, and a disturbed sense of self. A first example of borderline disorder that is shown in the movie is her relationship with Greg Savitt. She went to Greg for everything, even went to him when she wanted to adopt a baby, and he made it happen. She went to him when she would be in a slump in her acting career, and he would help her get the part she wanted. But when they came back from having dinner, she blows a gasket on him for not being a gentleman to her and she blamed all of her faults on him. Greg could not take anymore of her crazy outbursts, so he left her. Another example of how Joan displays borderline disorder is her relationship with her daughter Christina. A scene where this disorder is shown is when Joan dedicates an entire day of her resting so she can prepare herself to see Mr. Mayer. Her children Christopher and Christina were screaming and playing out in the garden. Well, this was not what Joan had planned, so she had Christina come up to her room so she could have a talk with Christina about how important it was to her to have her beauty rest. She scolded Christina and told her to go to her room until she was told to come out. Christina was in her room with her dolls, and she was disciplining them just like Joan had done to Christina. Joan was shocked at this, and when Christina wasn’t…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Symptoms of schizophrenia are disorganized thinking, disturbed perception, and inappropriate emotions and action as it said in chapter 14. In the video both girls show symptoms of this specific nature. For the disorganized thinking category the girl Rebecca says on the video at 9:16 she wishes she could kill everyone so she could have the whole world to herself. At 8:30 in the video an example of disturbed perception would be when Rebecca says she sees a man near her at all times or when Jani says at 0:57 in the video says she sees 24 hours floating by. Inappropriate emotion is another symptom, an example would be when Rebecca is crying and yelling in the car which is shown at in the video at 0:47. Lastly, inappropriate action would be when…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Susanna Kaysen is an eighteen year old that has been placed in a mental hospital ‘Claymoore’ after an attempted suicide. However, Susana is in denial of attempting suicide and claims that she drank the bottle of aspirin and bottle of vodka to cure her head ache. The purpose of Susana’s short stay at the hospital was ‘to get genuine rest’ as mentioned by the psychiatrist that she meets in courtesy of her parents. Susana is diagnosed with a ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’ as she is manifested by uncertainty about her self image, long term goals, types of lovers and friends to have and which values to adopt. At Claymoore Susana meets a group of unusual young women who eventually become her closest friends and as a result light her way back to something she had lost herself. She is intelligent and her goal after graduating was to write rather than go to college.…

    • 2095 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Borderline personality disorder is a mental illness characterized by a repetitive pattern of disorganization and irresolution in self-conception, interpersonal relationships, mood, and demeanor. The instability associated with this disorder is often disruptive to the individual 's personal and professional life, long term goals, and self identity. Webster 's New World Medical Dictionary states, "Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values." According to the Webster 's New World Medical Dictionary, "Originally thought to be at the "borderline" of psychosis, people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation." An individual with this disorder may often appear amicable and capable, and he or she is typically highly intelligent. The individual can often maintain this appearance for a number of years until a stressful situation, such as a breakup or a death in the family, causes an emotional collapse. "Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone." (medterms.com) According to Webster 's New World Medical Dictionary, Borderline Personality Disorder is more common than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, affecting two percent of adults, mostly young women. (medterms.com) "There is a high rate of self-injury without suicide intent, as well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed suicide in severe cases. Patients often need extensive mental health services and account for about 20% of psychiatric hospitalizations" (medterms.com).…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Borderline personality disorder comes with pain, emotional instability, and impulsive behavior which makes it more likely for that person to be at risk for drug and alcohol use. With the use they are more likely to continue and become dependent on that drug, or alcohol. Both are characterized by impulsive, self-destructive behaviors (Borderline Personality Disorder and Addiction, 2017). They also may be characterized by mood swings ranging from severe depression to manic periods of intense energy. As well as characterized by manipulative, deceitful actions.…

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Incest- Criminal Justice

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages

    ii. Borderline personality disorder: is characterized by splitting (alternating between idealizing and demonizing others) and mood disturbances. Individuals with this disorder are incredibly sensitive to how others treat them and they will engage in self-harm.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This paper analyses the Borderline Personality Disorder. The analysis is based on the movie " Girl Interrupted". This movie is based on a true story of Susanna Kaysen. The paper presents the description of disorder based on DSM-IV-TR and The National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH]. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by impulsivity, unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, an unstable self-image, frantic efforts to avoid perceived abandonment, inappropriate anger, self-destructive threats and behavior, transient paranoid ideation, dissociative symptoms, affective instability, or some combination thereof. The paper compares typical symptoms of the disorder to the ones the main character exhibits. It also talks about the possible treatments: medication , psychotherapy. Finally the paper talks about teaching proper for a patient suffering from Borderline…

    • 2418 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Borderline personality disorder "is defined in the DSM IV, a manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose all mental disorders, as an AXIS II disorder which has symptoms of impulsively and emotional dysregulation" (Livesley 146). A person with BPD have feelings of abandonment and emptiness, and have "frantic efforts to avoid abandonment, going to extremes to keep someone from leaving" (Burger 300). He or she is emotionally unstable and forms intense but unstable interpersonal relationships. They show impulsive behavior, such as spending money, sex, eating and substance abuse. Borderlines engage in self-manipulating behaviors and recurrent suicide attempts and thoughts. "Their behavior can be seen as maladaptive methods of coping with constant emotional pain" (Livesley 144).…

    • 4445 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    For my movie review I watched Girl Interrupted filmed in 1999 and directed by James Mangold. This is a movie that tells a story about a woman’s stay in the 1960’s on a psychiatric floor in Claymore hospital, after being suspected of suicide. The main character is a 19 year old female named Susana Kaysen who ate an entire bottle of aspirin and then drank a bottle of vodka. The doctor believes that Susana is suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder. Susan quickly finds herself making friends with everyone on the floor.…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sak Mental Illness

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages

    She describes her positive symptoms, which adds certain behaviors that normal people don’t have, in her essay with much detail and imaging. She talked about the Delusions and Hallucinations she had in dealing with Schizophrenia. Delusions are falsely believing something is there, but there’s nothing in sight; Hallucinations are false sensory perceptions experienced without an external source (“Psychology in your life, p.520”). Saks describes how her mind put together experiences like, quoting she had killed hundreds and thousands of people, as well as saying that she had seen a man with a raised knife in his hand (“Elyn Saks”). She also gives an example of a Hallucination she had, describing hearing nuclear explosions going off in her head (“Elyn Saks”). In her college years Sake describes her first episode with Schizophrenia, it was during a Memo Assignment she and her classmates had to do. This part of her life when dealing with her disorder, pointed out more positive symptoms of Schizophrenia, it describes her disorganized speech and behavior. She said that when she was in the library she couldn’t sit still, so suddenly, she decided to go the roof of her library to work on her assignment with her friends as they followed. She started to format words together into weird sentences as stated in the video “Pat use to say that” “have you killed anyone” and she also began to sing to herself on the roof (“Elyn Saks”). Her friends at first thought she was on drugs. Her teacher himself took her the hospital when her episode of mania got to him, she was put in a psychic ward for a while, but of course couldn’t finish her Memo assignment, because of this disorder it completely interfered with her daily life, which is a negative symptom that takes away behavior a regular person…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suffering is an inevitable part of life that every individual is bound to experience on many different levels and for numerous causes. Many times individuals are able to move past their pain and discomfort, but what if ones pain and discomfort is not something they can control? Individuals who suffer from a mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder often suffer physically, mentally and emotionally. According to the American Psychiatric Association Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe form of psychopathology characterized by instability of affect, impulsivity, self-harm, chaotic interpersonal relationships, and identity disturbance (Tomko, Rachel). Borderline Personality Disorder is a very interesting mental illness.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While visiting her, he finds a photograph of Ivan on her nightstand. This leads him to believe that she has teamed up with Ivan in a plot against him. This is another criteria for this diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, having suspicions about the fidelity of a sexual partner (DSM-V, 2013). All in all, the presentation of a paranoid personality seems to be accurately represented in this film. While Trevor does not exhibit all of the criteria for the diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, he does fit the bill quite…

    • 1269 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Tennessee William’s Portrait of Madonna Lucretia Collins is driven mad by the rejection of a man who she so fondly treasured and loved during her youth, so mad that she can no longer seem to grasp reality or even take care of herself. Her psychosis led her to think she is pregnant by the intruder who was the man she was in love with as a young girl and whose rejection is the main contribution to her flight from reality. Thus her heart break led to obsession and her delusions drastically worsened from, Richard breaking into her apartment, to him forcing himself on her and her becoming pregnant.…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Paula Stewart suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. This is a disorder in which an individual dissociates from their mind and has two or more different personalities. After being suggested to see a clinical psychologist at the university attends she meets Dr. Harpin. Dr. Harpin is astonished with the disorder due to its rarity and the fact that he’s never treated a patient with this condition let alone believing it existed. DID is a very difficult disorder to treat…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays