Girl, Interrupted ~ What does it mean?

The film starring Winona Rider which brought Borderline Personality Disorder to public awareness has an unusual title. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen was first published in bookform in 1993, parts of it having appeared before that inthree different magazines. The book was published in paperbackin June 1994 and then reissued in 1999 to coincide withthe release of the Hollywood movie version.

On page 1 we learn from the reproduction of Ms. Kaysen’s caserecord folder that she was voluntarily admitted to McLean, wasa high school graduate, and was the daughter of parents livingin Princeton, New Jersey, where her father was on the PrincetonUniversity faculty. She was characterized as a white, Jewish,single female with admitting diagnoses of “psychoneurotic depressivereaction” and “personality pattern disturbance, mixed type.”There was also a rule-out diagnosis of “undifferentiated schizophrenia.”Finally, we see that the diagnosis eventually established forher was “borderline personality.”

On the last page of the book, also from Ms. Kaysen’s case recordfolder, we see that she was discharged in January 1969, after496 days in residence at the hospital and 121 days on authorizedleave. The book’s title, reflecting this interval, comes fromthe Vermeer painting Girl Interrupted at Her Music in the FrickMuseum in New York City.