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Michael Josephson
Professor R. Kane
English 115 Friday 10AM
2 December, 2016
English 115 Essay #3
The world around us is controlled by people we either agree with or people who we
dont. I think in any situation, whoever holds the power creates the definition of normality. So in
essence the main distinction between the sane and insane stems from the overall matter of who
holds the power. In Kaysens book Girl Interrupted we are given the opportunity to see what a
mental institution is like from the eyes of a patient. Kaysens experiences and encounters at
McLean allow one to step in the shoes of somebody who feels what we see as different, as being
normal.
Sanity is someone who is capable of being and acting in a normal matter. Most
importantly, having the ability to reason and can deal with a broad range of issues. This typically
means conforming to what society deems as normal. Unfortunately, during the time that Kaysen
was institutionalized at McLean Hospital, there was a lack of respect for the common social rules
of society. While Kaysen did recognize those social rules and tended to obey most of them, she
still felt as if she did not fit societys mold on someone who would be deemed sane. When
somebody is sane they are considered responsible for their action, this is because they have the

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ability to think a decision through before they act on it. Sanity overall is a minimum requirement
of mental stability established by people around you due to the way they act, talk, or reason.
Insanity is the opposite of sanity, it is someone who is seen a not capable of being and
acting in a normal matter. In some cases, as a person, they do not have the ability to reason and
deal with certain issues. The difference between Susanna and the multitudes of people who were
acting out against the establishment in this time period were not considered medically insane.
Insanity does not prevent one from being rational or always forces certain phenotypes of actions,
but can actually be subtle and affect the common views of the critical thinking and logic that is
common in the surrounding society. Somebody who is considered insane may be able to take
charge and rationally make decisions, but in most cases are not capable in doing so. This
therefore gives the generalization that no insane person can really be held responsible for their
actions because, there is a belief that they cannot process their ideas to societys conformations.
To be diagnosed with insanity would mean that one is not able to meet a minimum requirement
of mental stability established by people around you due to the way they act, talk, or reason.
Power is the authority known or unknown that can be used to influence the behavior and
actions of other is a given society. We are all under the influence of some sort of authority which
is actually a power. Whether it is taxes, normal laws or being in the care of another person. In
both One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest and Girl, Interrupted we see there are certain figures who
hold a power over other character in the book. The Stanford Prison Experiment video on
YouTube shows how people (in the scenario of prison) are under the power of the people who are
regarded as guards. Power can be subtle, but the influence it makes is guaranteed to be seen. In
the Stanford Prison experiment, prisoners retaliate against guards but ultimately fall short

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because their lack of authority. In both of the mental institutions that we have as examples we see
this as well. Patients fall short of their care takers as well Alice was marched past us between
two nurses on her way to maximum security. (Keysan 112) they are at the risk of making their
own personal conditions worse if the institution believes they should. It is a common idea that
there is an authority and it is a chance to stand up to it, but one still has the chance at failing.
I personally believe that Susanna was crazy before she entered McLean and for a shot
while when she was staying there. I say this because of the background that she gives us of
herself before entering the hospital. She was stressed and wasnt of sound mind, on the basis that
she attempted to harm herself by taking 50 aspirin. I think that the facility took the overall stress
of her life away from her which allowed her to heal. It took time, but even though she didnt
express it as extravagantly as before she was in McLean it was still there. Recent finding showed
that metacognitive control underlies the efficiency of information search across the life span and
across individuals. Additionally, children and adults might have different ways to operationalize
a querys informativeness (e.g., optimizing vs. satisficing), and this operationalization could be
influenced by the different costs (e.g., time and effort) incurred by children and adults when
implementing a given strategy, as well as by their motivation. (Developmental Psychology).
Susanna had to go through a rite of passage that came at the cost of her freedom to get her mental
health care, and it both positively and negatively influenced her motivation for when she was
released. She was allowed to have the time and resources to help her overcome her issues,
unfortunately she became a little dependent on the facility and its staff. As of right now she
seems to be doing very well for herself and obviously conforming to the rules of society seeing
she hasnt been taken back in to any mental health facility suck as McLean. She may suffer from
schizophrenia or other disorders on paper, but it may be insignificant because she has learned to

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control it. From a non-medical perspective, it is much more a matter of opinion. The same goes
for the character McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest he may have had a problem
that I couldnt see, or it may be his motivation for power. According to recent studies the ability
to recognize moral situations and act appropriately is critical to ones survival in social groups
and may be essential for securing access to needed physical and psychological resources afforded
by group members (Journal of Experimental Psychology), so maybe when he was defying
Nurse Ratcheds orders he wasnt crazy, it was helping him be normal. Everybody has their own
idea of what crazy is. At the end of the day, the diagnosis only matters if it is evident: if one feels
fine and the diagnosis isnt affecting that persons character in any way, all power too them.
I dont believe that Susanna was a reliable narrator, for a few reasons. One being that it
was a long time after she had left the facility when she decided to write down the events that she
remembered, some things may get messed up or forgotten. Another reason is that there is no
chronological order. This really stood out among her book, but at the same time she had a
problem dealing with the concept of time. It doesnt make sense that multiple records from
different people are time stamped for certain lengths but go against what she feels the time
actually is. Another large issue at hand is majority of the books is written in the present tense.
Rather than reflecting, majority of the time is acting as how she felt as a patient, not when she
wrote the book. Since she felt a sort of conspiring against her at that time in her life, it adds an
addition bias into her writing.
I think that the major difference between Keysans story and the Cuckoos Nest film is
that Susanna is the observer telling us what she sees at McLean, where the film, we as an
audience decipher what he sees from the actions of the characters. I think that in a way every

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patient between both plot lines suffer from similar issues and the experience that they have may
not be exactly the same, but they are similar.
In a world where we are influenced on what is considered insane or sane, we judge that
based off society. Even with the capabilities to do otherwise and choose for ourselves, we choose
to follow the power and act a certain level as a majority.

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Works Cited

BBC. Feature Film - The Stanford Prison Experiment (Documentary). YouTube, uploaded by
AnotherBoringWeek, 4 January 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_LKzEqlPto

Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted

Vintage Books, 1993

Ruggeri, Azzurra. Sources of Developmental Change in the Efficiency of Information Search.

Developmental Psychology, vol. 52, no. 12, September 2016, pp 2159-2173. Ebscohost, doi:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.csun.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=f85d060c-27ed-4791-a5f2f5e6929ed314%40sessionmgr4007&vid=0&hid=4107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#AN=2016-56613-009&db=pdh

Gantman, Ana P. Exposure to Justice Diminishes Moral Perception. Journal of Experimental

Psychology, vol. 145, no. 12, September 2016, pp 1728-1739. Ebscohost, doi:
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.csun.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=9069a89a-e77a-4e60-bdda-

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59546357fc28%40sessionmgr4006&vid=0&hid=4107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ
%3d%3d#AN=2016-57218-004&db=pdh,