Chapters 16 & 17 Summary and Analysis

After several months, a patient named Lisa Cody is admitted; since, there is already a Lisa in the ward, the new arrival is referred to by her complete name. The two Lisas are initially friendly and often complicit. After a few months, Lisa Cody is diagnosed as a sociopath, the same illness as the first Lisa. Lisa immediately rejects Lisa Cody's friendship and an intense rivalry begins. Lisa constantly makes demeaning demands of Lisa Cody and then vituperates Lisa Cody's responses. Within a few months Lisa Cody is entirely beaten down and dominated. One of the main contentions Lisa puts forward is that Lisa Cody is not a "real" drug user. When the two women compare track marks, Lisa Cody's are small and faint; Lisa concludes she is only a "suburban junky" (p. 60). After a while, Lisa Cody successfully escapes...