Girl, Interrupted Summary
Introduction
The movie Girl Interrupted is a memoir about Susanna Kaysen's battle with mental illness. It is set in the sixties and seventies, in a medium security psychiatric ward. After Susanna attempts suicide, her parents bring her to speak with a psychotherapist who suggests and end up convincing her to commit herself to be institutionalized and eventually diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. During the course of the film, which seems to take place within well over a year, she undergoes treatment in the forms of therapy, analysis and pharmaceutical drugs. During her stay at the psych ward she meets and builds relationships with the other females who are undergoing treatment for other forms of mental illness. I believe that the individual that I would be intervening with would be Susanna in this case. Based on the fact that she has been institutionalized I would be interacting or intervening hopefully within the first few weeks of her stay in the hospital so as to start building a relationship with the client as soon as possible. Gathering information/Assessment
Forming Partnerships
Susanna Kaysen is the service user in this film, she is an eighteen year old female who has willingly admitted herself to a mental institution after a suicide attempt. When approaching this individual in an appointment type setting I would keep an open posture and be very aware of my non verbal communication as someone at that age can be easily offended or put on the defense if they feel judged. Along with this I would also try to invite her to speak more than myself by asking non invasive open ended questions at first, and validating any strong emotions that were to come up to encourage her to speak more. Knowing, based on her body language that she does not want to be where she is, I would ask her what she feels would be positive goals