Mental Illness In The Film Girl

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Recommended: How the media depicts mental illness

The 1999 film girl, interrupted is a non-stop talked about and outstanding representation of mental illness. The story follows 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen who is going through troubled times after graduating high school. The beginning showcases her attempt at killing herself which she states is unintentional she simply “was trying to make the shit stop”. The quote relates to many viewers regardless mental illness or not; sometimes the only way to get rid of something on the inside is harmful and cruel methods. In addition sometimes the traumas we have experienced counteract with how we perceive future situations the actions we make, which what we see with the main character Susanna and the supporting characters Lisa and Valerie. In the early …show more content…

Once she does accept it, her recovery begins; she finally realises the only way she can get better and out of the institute is to embrace what she has being given and realises that “crazy isn’t being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It’s you or me.. Amplified.” At the end of the film she ultimately has her final days at claymore and moves on to bigger and better things. Susanna’s time at claymore was just simply an interruption not her whole …show more content…

Lisa is sociopath as discovered in early portion of the movie; she is cruelly truthful from her having no sense of filter or remorse for the words or actions she says or does to people. Lisa feels as she is free can do whatever she wants because that's what mentally ill people are expected to be like according to the stigma around the subject; her words going even so far as to make one of the girls commit suicide. As free and alive as Lisa feels however, the very truth is that she really isn’t. She is stuck in claymore forever because she refuses to get better. By her refusal of getting better she is a basketcase, that people have just stopped caring about without her knowing. She feels powerful but everytime she runs away she knows she’s going to come back; Lisa refers to claymore as her “home”, the institute gives her a sense of security. However deep inside she knows that the others around her could possibly get better and leave her, therefore scaring her into being manipulative. Furthermore she then proceeds to ensure that everyone stops there process in getting better and released; she stops everyone from taking the pills that they’re meant to take and forces them to remain in a void with her and knowing to praise her for

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