Girl Interrupted

The movie �Girl Interrupted’ is a story of a nineteen year old girl (Suzanna) in the 1960’s who, after being suspected of trying to commit suicide, gets sent away to the Mental Institution (Claymoore) for a short �resting period.’ Her psychiatrist had suggested to her that the affair with one of her parents’ friends, along with her misconception that chasing a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka is anything other than a suicide attempt, could be signs that she may be suffering from �borderline personality disorder.’ Now she had to try to keep herself from going crazy – surrounded by a bunch of crazies.

At the Claymoore Hospital, Suzanna quickly becomes familiar to a number of the institution’s residents. These residents included Georgina (a pathological liar), Polly (a terminally fearful burn victim), Daisy (an incest victim and extremely withdrawn agoraphobic), and Lisa (a charming, but manipulating sociopath). The only character to really do a great job in adequately portraying the characteristics of their disorder was Lisa, the sociopath. Antisocial personality disorder is a psychiatric condition characterized by chronic behavior that manipulates, exploits, or violates the rights of others. “Individuals with antisocial personality disorder are often angry and arrogant but may be capable of superficial wit and charm. They may be adept at flattery and are very skilled at manipulating the emotions for their own personal gain” (www.nlm.nih.gov). I thought Lisa disorder was accurately portrayed - even with her total disregard for the concerns (and even the lives of others), she still manages to some how charm the audience with her blunt brutal honesty and her �I don’t care what people think of me’ attitude. People diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder seem to have no emotional connection to any one or anything, and seldom show any signs of remorse for their intrusions on the rights of others. Lisa’s power of observations gave her the uncanny ability to sense the weakness in other people, which as most sociopaths do, used them for her own personal gain.

Then there was Daisy, an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobic whose ongoing affair with her father had left her with a number of various personality disorders to choose from (there weren’t many disorders that she didn’t