Abnormal Psychology

A summary of the susanna kaysen's experience of the mental illness, using his/her actual words or actual incidents depicted in the movie.

Dr. Crumble : Susanna, four days ago, you chased a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka.

Susanna Kaysen : I had a headache.

The dialogue above between Dr. Crumble and Susanna Kaysen showed Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). She tend to act on impulse by bites open the flesh on her hand after she becomes terrified that she has " lost her bones". She have a tendency to engage in impulsive acts of self-mutation as means of temporarily escape from deep, emotional pain. It is due to she cannot tolerate being alone and make desperate attempts to avoid feeling of abandonment.

Susanna Kaysen : (reading from a book) "Borderline Personality Disorder. An instability of self-image, relationship and moods… uncertainty about goals, impulsive in activities that are self-damaging, such as causal sex."

Lisa Rowe : I like that.

Susanna Kaysen : "Social contraries and a generally pessimistic attitude and often observed" Well, that's me.

Lisa Rowe : That's everybody.

Susanna Kaysen : I mean, what kind of sex isn't causal?

Janet Webber : They mean promiscuous.

Susanna Kaysen : I'm not promiscuous. I'm not.

People with borderline personality disorder tend to be uncertain about their own identities, values, goals, and perhaps their sexual orientations. Although Susanna