Santos 1

Xhelledrick Santos
Professor Kane
English 115 MW
28 November 2016
Essay 3.2: Not Crazy, Yet
Girls in the mental ward of Susanna Kaysens book, Girl, Interrupted, certainly arent
crazier than the average person on the street. They may have been put in there for their own good
due to their wild and dangerous behaviors, but what they do certainly doesnt compare to the real
crazies. People in the outside world cause crazy acts, commit crimes under the radar, and believe
in outrageous things yet they are still allowed to roam the streets. But then again, nobody is
really in a position of power to determine whats crazy or not for others. Our family, our friends,
our town all have a major role in how our concept of crazy has been molded or constructed in the
first place, but then there are groups larger than them with influence shaping their thoughts.
Possibly, the root of this concepts creators is with who holds power and enforces the rules and
the rules go full circle by being made by us, a democratic society: America.
Laws call for right and wrong and we must obey them, thats the conclusion society came
to and how it goes about things. Some laws people strongly disagree with believing they are
insane to follow that, and of course there are others who follow willingly because they see it as
right. However, we are still allowed to vote because what constitutes as good and bad can change
when the majority changes. At one point in Girl, Interrupted, the main girls questioned why the
ones in seclusion, like Alice, belonged there and they didnt. Its similar to how we could see
someone on the street help another person yet go to jail for breaking the rules, how are they as
much of a bad guy as the next person. To raise questions regarding normality and abnormality is

Santos 2
in no way to question the fact that some behaviors are deviant or odd. Murder is deviant,
(Rosenhan.). These concepts may not be wrong in the right scenarios or
perspectives, like in the concept of revenge. If a man murders in cold blood,
we all see that as wrong and immoral because thats the law and society as a
majority made it so. But lets say it was revenge to kill the man who
murdered his family, then it would be fair. Then it would raise more questions
about murder during war time. We could all view our own points being as
sane and everyone else around us insane, if we really saw it that way. Due to
similarities, thats why a majority collectively determines sanity. But a
situation like who goes in seclusion and out is a gray area not involving
morals, yet the ones who are watching in a third person are still the ones
who make the choices, such as the nurses of the ward being similar to
authorities. It all came down to the good of the majority, to keep the girls
safe from those who arent safe to have around.
Ideas and beliefs fluctuate as time go by, what may be wrong years ago could be
completely acceptable in todays society. Girls in the ward like Polly and Susanna herself would
be set free years ago if they were institutionalized in modern times for there to be space for the
Crazier people as society would deem them. A well-known psychological test known as the
Rorschach Inkblot test has been around for decades, however; many studies have shown how
various Rorschach scores rise and fall in relation to the number of responses that are given when
completing the task, (Giselle Pianowsk, et al). This is an example showing that as time goes on,
the results change and are inconsistent. What they may have believed then as the determining
responses for the test as whats crazy and not have completely flipped in todays time because the

Santos 3
responses are based off a recorded majority. Those institutionalized possibly for this test would
be falsely diagnosed by todays standard, seeing this practice almost as a pseudoscience of sorts.
The concept of crazy and not crazy may change slowly, yet there are some smaller
societies in which some medical issues are still acceptable as a part of everyday life while being
completely outrageous in others. North American Indians believe that schizophrenics as voice
hearers have a religious and/or spiritual significance. If a girl in the mental ward were of Native
American decent, her people wouldnt allow her to go to a mental institution. She could even
possibly be praised for her disability as society would call it. This occurs as part of their beliefs
as their connection with a higher being. This act could also be seen in movies or stories, where
the hero believes in hearing spirts or ghosts to guide their way. It would be a problem to have
schizophrenia still in todays world, but when a Native American has it we wouldnt bat an eye.
Susanna Kaysen could be written down in documents as crazy, but she could be crazy on
her own terms. She is rather a philosopher of sorts, than a loon. It depends on the culture one is
around to determine crazy and sane, so in this case Kaysen isnt quite like being a Native
American with schizophrenia. At one point in the book she gnaws at her hand to find her bones.
She does this when Torrey leaves the ward not on her own devices accepting her fate. Torrey
who left came to terms with who she is and her place in the world while Kaysen questions hers.
She wondered what made her, her. Whether her soul is who she is, or her role in society is what
creates her character. She questioned if she had a soul or something deeper to begin with when
she decided to mutilate herself. Her conclusion was that her bones are the basis of her, her
framework of her very existence physically and metaphorically. Although she took on some
extreme measures to come to this conclusion, she was just questioning and curious either way.

Santos 4
In another part of the story she mentions Platos Allegory of the Cave, a philosophical
mental exercise of sorts questioning the being of things. It raises the thought that what if not only
her and others who think outside the box, but also philosophers could be considered crazy as
well. Philosophers often think about outrageous topics and concepts, things outside of what
societys normal spectrum of thinking. Some philosophers ways of thinking could get them
punished for obscuring the peace and ignorant ways of that society, thus leading them to be
punished with death like Plato was. Then again there is the other side of that coin in which Plato
created a following with others who praised him for his philosophical thoughts and believed him
to be right and not the justices. In ancient Greece, citizens would even go as far as to wanting to
have them as kings and mold society for themselves. Then again, we in modern times are stuck
to follow those with power or grouped together to make the majority and not those who we see
as right. The majority has the influence and control to make the changes. Either we are a part of
it or against it.
The law doesnt always do the best for us even if we have a say in the matter. The legal
solutions may not be the ones we had in mind. Edward Snowden released top-secret intelligence
documents that detailed a domestic U.S. spying apparatus. (Lustgarten.). Snowden had the
chance to reveal to the public the truth about government surveillance, and he took it. He
followed his moral belief, a sane one shaped by the very country he lived in, and did what he
believed best for everyone for the greater good. He opened many peoples eyes to see that the
government was violating peoples rights, according to the laws they passed themselves. To
many, he was a hero and to others he is a crazed man to release such information. At the end of it
all, he was still no match for the powers above him just as the girls of the ward didnt against the
nurses.

Santos 5
Works Cited
Davies, Hywel. Schizophrenia: 35 Facts. Hearingvoicescymru. Pembrokeshire Mind. 2016.
http://hearingvoicescymru.org/information/publications/schizophrenia-35-facts
Giselle Pianowski, Gregory J. Meyer & Anna Elisa de Villemor-Amaral (2016)
The Impact of R-Optimized Administration Modeling Procedures on Brazilian Normative
Reference Values for Rorschach Scores, Journal of Personality Assessment, 98:4, 408418, DOI:10.1080/00223891.2016.1148701.
Lustgarten, Samuel D. "Emerging Ethical Threats To Client Privacy In Cloud Communication
And Data Storage." Professional Psychology: Research And Practice 46.3 (2015): 154160. PsycINFO. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest. Directed by Milos Forman, performances by Jack Nicholson
and Louise Fletcher,Warner Home Video, 2011.
Plato. The Allegory of the Cave The Republic. Faculty Knox, n.trans. n.d.,
faculty.knox.edu/fmcandre/allegory_cave.pdf. Accessed 26 Sept. 2016.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl Interrupted. Vintage Books, 1993