Girl, Interrupted | Themes

Girl, Interrupted Themes

What is Insane

The dominant theme of the memoir concerns the nature of sanity versus insanity. The author was formally diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and spent about eighteen months in involuntary commitment at a mental hospital and received treatment for mental illness. Many persons mentioned in the memoir have either been formally diagnosed with mental illness or is a mental healthcare service provider. The primary setting of the memoir is a mental health facility, and the constant subject of investigation is the nature of insanity. Though insanity is usually defined as the opposite of sane, the author constantly investigates the nature of sanity.

The theme is presented in three ways, all of which are interrelated. The first presentation of the theme is in the autobiographical reporting of the author's personal experiences from attempted suicide and mental breakdown to initial diagnosis; then from voluntary commitment through treatment; then from recovery to discharge and...
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