Girl, Interrupted

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. What phrase does Kaysen use to describe the different mental states certain people experience, some of which are judged as being disordered?

2. How many questions does Kaysen ask the reader to answer in the survey?

3. What notorious prison does Kaysen reference as a comparison to McLean?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the primary reason Kaysen’s doctor gives for admitting her to McLean Hospital.

2. Describe Lisa’s behavior after her release from seclusion.

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. Who visits Kaysen at McLean?

2. What is the name of Georgina’s boyfriend?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What reason does Kaysen give for not wanting to run away to England?

1. Describe Daisy’s room at McLean Hospital.

3. What happens when Kaysen tries to die by suicide?

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. What bothers Kaysen about the ice cream parlor?

2. What is on the window in the seclusion room?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the atmosphere at McLean Hospital according to Kaysen.

2. Why do patients and staff at McLean eat with plastic utensils?

Paired Resource

“1966: The Year Youth Culture Exploded”

• This article from The Guardian explores the culture of youth in the 1960s and how adults during that decade pushed back against teenagers. This provides a helpful connection to Kaysen’s description of how her doctor failed to understand her because of her age and consequently sent her to McLean based on this failure.
• This article also connects to the theme of Perceptions of Mental Health by providing context about how the older generation in the 1960s failed to understand youth and impacted Kaysen’s life by making an unfair diagnosis.
• How do adults’ perceptions of adolescents, both today and in the past, impact the present and future life circumstances of teenagers?

Chapters 16-20

Reading Check

1. What diagnosis do both Lisas receive at McLean?

2. What kind of relationships do Kaysen and her friends say are hard to maintain at McLean?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Kaysen’s story about her admittance to McLean differ from her doctor’s story?

2. What does Lisa do after the nurse removes the screen from her window?

Paired Resource

“We Don’t Just Treat BPD, We Treat People”

• This article on the treatment of bipolar personality disorder appears on today’s McLean Hospital website and describes the ways the hospital currently treats the disorder that Kaysen was diagnosed with at the same hospital many decades ago.
• This article connects to the themes Perceptions of Mental Health and Gender and Sexism.
• From what you know about Kaysen’s description of her treatment at McLean Hospital for bipolar personality disorder, in what ways has the treatment of this disorder changed based on the description in the article? Are there any similarities to the ways the disorder was treated in the past and the ways it is treated now?

Chapters 21-25

Reading Check

1. Why does Kaysen think the staff is more reliant on medication than the patients are?

2. What war do the patients hear about on TV?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Valerie like?

2. Why does Kaysen think it is liberating to lose her privacy, liberty, and dignity at McLean?

Paired Resource

“Can Friendship Really Take the Place of Therapy?”

• This article published in The Hill in 2020 examines the role of friendship and mental health and compares friendship with therapy. This relates to the observation Kaysen makes that the student nurses are more helpful to patients at McLean than therapists because they are friends.
• This connects to the theme of Personality and Self-Image in regard to the role of friendship in supporting positive self-image.
• Do you think that therapists always understand what is best for their patients, or can genuine friendship sometimes foster mental wellbeing in more successful ways?

Chapters 26-30

Reading Check

1. What three names does Kaysen give to Melvin’s three cars?

2. What job does the social worker at McLean encourage Kaysen to consider?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Kaysen say people tend to respond when she tells them she has been a patient at McLean?

2. Why is Kaysen finally discharged from McLean Hospital?

Chapters 31-34

Reading Check

1. What does Kaysen call the disorder that describes people who are chronically bored?

2. What is the title of the Vermeer painting that Kaysen sees in New York?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Of what is Kaysen reminded when she sees the title of the Vermeer painting?

2. What is Lisa like when Kaysen sees her three years after leaving McLean?

Paired Resource

“Borderline Personality Disorder”

• This is a brief informational article published by the National Institute of Mental Health that describes borderline personality disorder.
• This resource connects to the theme Perceptions of Mental Health by describing how those diagnosed with this disorder feel a high level of uncertainty about how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them.
• Speculate on how the modern-day description of borderline personality disorder differs from the way Kaysen perceives herself.

Recommended Next Reads 

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Wang

• This collection of essays is written from the perspective of one who struggles with the effects of chronic mental health concerns and offers an in-depth discussion of schizophrenia.
• This book connects to the theme Perceptions of Mental Health.
• The Collected Schizophrenias on SuperSummary

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

• This is a philosophical psychology book that considers why we exist, why we deny our own mortality, and what our existence means.
• This book connects to the theme of Personality and Self Image.
• The Denial of Death on SuperSummary

Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness by Pete Early

• This is a memoir about the author’s son, who struggles to receive a diagnosis for his mental illness, resulting in his arrest and subsequent conflicts with the criminal justice system.
• This book connects to the theme Perceptions of Mental Health.
• Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness on SuperSummary