Girl, Interrupted

A new patient, named Lisa Cody, joined the ward and quickly befriended the other Lisa. The two patients developed a game where they pretended to talk to each other on the phone but were actually yelling to each other from separate phone booths. At first, Lisa delighted in Lisa Cody’s company and their shared antics. Their relationship soured when Lisa Cody received the same diagnosis as Lisa: sociopath. Sharing her “sociopath” status, Lisa began to feel threatened by Lisa Cody’s presence. Lisa began outdoing Lisa Cody at a variety of challenges, such as overdosing on sleeping pills or putting out cigarettes on her own arm. Lisa also pranked Lisa Cody by crushing stolen lightbulbs in her preferred phone booth. Eventually Lisa Cody runs away and is never seen at McLean Hospital again. When Lisa briefly escaped from McLean, she claimed to have seen Lisa Cody again and was pleased to report that she is now a “real junkie” (61).

Kaysen and her friends from the ward, Georgina, Lisa, and Lisa Cody lamented how difficult it was to maintain a romantic relationship as patients at McLean. Kaysen remembers her embarrassment at having a nurse interrupt her with her boyfriend, which caused him to stop visiting her at the hospital.