Girl, Interrupted

“People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can’t answer the real question. All I can tell them is, It’s easy.”

Kaysen foreshadows her experience of being coerced into entering McLean Hospital by explaining that it was “easy” to be admitted. She erodes the distinction between hospitalized and non-hospitalized people and provides a sense of foreboding to the narrative as she warns that anyone can be institutionalized.

“I have often thought of the next ten minutes—my last ten minutes. I had the impulse, once, to get up and leave through the door I’d entered, to walk the several blocks to the trolley stop, and wait for the train that would take me back to my troublesome boyfriend, my job at the kitchen store. But I was too tired.”

Kaysen recalls waiting for the doctor to continue their appointment, when he would announce his consequential decision that she should go to McLean hospital. Kaysen refers to these moments as her “last ten minutes” to hint that her time at McLean was a distinct period in her life and akin to entering a parallel universe.

“Lisa had run away again. We were sad, because she kept our spirits up. She was funny. Lisa! I can’t think of her without smiling, even now. The worst was that she was always caught and dragged back, dirty, with wild eyes that had seen freedom.”

Kaysen elaborates on her positive feelings about Lisa as she describes her habit of running away. Lisa’s regular escapes and subsequent capture affirm that once people were admitted to McLean hospital, they were not allowed to leave without permission. The use of the word “freedom” illustrates that McLean’s residents felt imprisoned, and the violent language “dragged back” highlights the immense resistance that Lisa felt about returning to McLean.