Girl, Interrupted

Kaysen states that it was not difficult to be admitted for mental treatment, just as it is easy to enter a kind of ‘parallel universe’ such as that of “the insane, the criminal, the crippled, the dying” (13). Her roommate at McLean Hospital, Georgina, entered the same institution after going “crazy” at a movie theater one day, when she felt that the whole world went black for several minutes. Kaysen returns to the idea of parallel universes, writing that in these experiences the regular laws of physics do not apply. She adds that while people living in the normal universe cannot perceive these parallel universes, people in them can always look back at where they came from. She reiterates this point by concluding, “Every window on Alcatraz has a view of San Francisco” (14).

Kaysen goes to a doctor’s appointment, where a male physician briefly speaks with her. When he questions her about her pimple and her boyfriend, Kaysen only nods, prompting the doctor to decide that Kaysen needs to “rest” (15). Kaysen feels tired since she woke up early to go to the appointment, and so she agrees that she does need a rest. The doctor explains that he thinks Kaysen should stay in a hospital to relax for a couple of weeks and, although she resists the idea, he tells her she must go and puts her into a taxi to McLean Hospital.