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Christopher Diaz
Professor Kane
English 115
2 December 2016
Crazy Everywhere
Struggles are a part of life. Whether you live in an upscale apartment in Brooklyn, a slum
in India or in the White House, struggles are something that everyone faces. Some people can
handle their struggles better than most. Society then deems these people as mentally fit. The
people who cannot handle their struggles, the people who breakdown and lose it are deemed
mentally unfit or crazy. This, however, is untrue because sanity and insanity is subjective because
crazy is everywhere and everyone is crazy to a degree. The only thing that determines how crazy
you are is how you handle a certain situation. In the movie One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest the
protagonist, McMurphy, proclaims to the other members of his mental ward that they are no
crazier than the average asshole on the street. This statement is applicable to the girls in
Susanna Kaysenss book Girl, Interrupted. These girls face a degree of struggles but dont
handle them the way society would like so they are labeled as crazy.
Kaysenss own struggles can be blamed on her youth, going through a time of change and
having to deal with a changing body/mindset. Later in her book Kaysen goes on to explain why
she was sent to McLean: [I]nstability of self-image, interpersonal relationships, and mood . . .
uncertainty about . . . long-term goals or career choice . . . (Kaysen 152). What Kaysen
described were some of the many things that adolescents who are coming of age experienced.
She is not crazy; she is just going through a very confusing point in her life. Once she isnt

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crazy anymore, meaning once she has matured, she is functional. She eventually overcame her
struggles and is just as normal as she has ever been.
If someone is truly crazy, then being crazy is something that is a part of them. They
cannot be cured of crazy. And yet some of the characters in Girl, Interrupted are able to leave
McLean Hospital because they are no longer crazy. Kaysen runs into some of her for coinhabitants of McLean and they appear to be average people. In a conversation Kaysen has with
Lisa, Lisa reveals to Kaysen that she is a mother. This is my kid,she said. Isnt it crazy how I
have a kid? (Kaysen 162). Lisa having been one of the more uncontrollable patients at McLean
surprises Kaysen with her child. Had Lisa remained crazy, she would not be allowed to take
care of her child. But now that she has aged and matured she has grown out of some her toxic
tendencies. Although Lisa still has some manipulative tendencies, she has to have experienced
some maturity. Otherwise, if she had still behaved uncontrollably she would likely not have been
able to care for her child. But because her child is the reason why her mother looks after Lisa and
her child, Lisa sees it more beneficial to behave herself.
There is no cure to craziness. Sure, medications can help subdue the craziness but if
someone who is crazy were to get off of their medication then it is likely that they would revert
to their crazy ways. Likewise, once you are crazy, you are will always be crazy. This notion
comes from nature vs nurture, Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influence by
genetic inheritance and other biological factors (McLeod). Some people are born crazy and
some are made crazy but nonetheless, there is no escaping their craziness. This is why Susanna
Kaysen was never crazy to begin with. Susanna Kaysens nutriment from her parents, who were
extremely well off, meant they could afford neglect her and send her away at whim. Had she

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been crazy from the start, and had she not have gotten married, she would have had to have
stayed at McLean for much longer.
Susanna Kaysen was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in a time when
people of color were struggling for equality. Inequality wasn't only limited to people of color;
women were largely marginalized as well. Susanna Kaysen grew up during a power struggle and
sadly because of this power struggle and an institutionalized male hierarchy, she was deemed as
crazy. Doctors in particular have the power to heal and improve the health of their patients but
the also wield the power to determine the sanity of others. Doctors have also cured false diseases
with placebo pills. "Typically, the person getting a placebo doesnt know for sure that the
treatment isnt real. Sometimes the placebo is in the form of a sugar pill, but a placebo can also
be an injection, a liquid, or even a procedure. Its designed to seem like a real treatment, but
doesnt directly affect the illness" (Placebo Effect). Patients who were experiencing strange
symptoms were given sugar pills through a period of time. Some of the conditions of the patients
improved others did not. These doctors were able to cure these ailments but under false
pretenses. Susannas doctor who didn't fully understand her condition or what she was going
through, gave her a false assessment to which society believed because of the power her doctor
had.
Crazy is everywhere but people going through difficult times are no crazier than the man
yelling out of his car to the car in front of him because he cut him off. People are different; they
have different weaknesses and different strengths. Some are better suited to handle certain
situations than others but this is no reason to penalize the people who are lesser suited. Acting
out and trying to obtain the attentions of others arent signs of craziness but rather signs that
someone needs help. Rather than throwing people into the looney bin on account of this is the

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truly crazy thing to do. People should be helped and heard accordingly to what they are going
through, not told that they are crazy.

Works Cited
Kaysen, Sussana. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Vintage, 1993. Print.
McLeod, Saul. "Saul McLeod." Nature Nurture in Psychology | Simply Psychology. N.p., 01 Jan.
1970. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.
"Placebo Effect." Placebo Effect. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.
Plato. The Allegory of the Cave The Republic. Faculty Knox, n.trans. n.d.,
faculty.knox.edu/fmcandre/allegory_cave.pdf. Accessed 26. 2016.