Beginning of Essay
In "," the novelist Susanna Caisson, 43, uses a series of vignettes to describe her experiences as a teen-age mental patient in 1967-68. Using herself as a troubled - and troubling - example, Kaysen demonstrates with humor the severe problems with diagnosis, the s ....

Middle of Essay
.... the human condition, for it consists of "uncertainty about several life issues, such as self-image, sexual orientation, long-term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers to have" - what one of Caisson's therapists called "people whose lifestyles bother them." Certainly, Caisson suggests , such uncertainty is the normal state of teen-agers. Especially the smart ones, such as Caisson herself, who, like clever prisoners, learn to work the hospital's system of rules and restrictions to their own advantage. Patients are checked on by nurses at five-, 15- or 30-minute intervals, day and night. They are escorted everywhere by one or more nurses; ....