Exam Sample 2: Velocity and Viscosity
The chapter entitled "Velocity and Viscosity" in Susanna Kaysen's autobiography, Girl Interrupted , is another example of her appropriation of the vernacular of science to describe something experienced from within the realm of the insane instead of describing an observation of the insane behavior of others.
Kaysen lists off the terms that psychiatrists use to interpret the deviant behavior (i.e. depression, catatonia) showing the labeling that takes place to distance one group from the other and critiquing that method by saying “they don’t tell you much” (75). Using medical language instead to immerse herself in portraying what it actually feels like to have a difference perspective on "reality", she describes the different ‘insane’ ways of absorbing the vast amounts of stimuli one encounters in everyday life. Paradoxically, she examines her own body and describes herself from a detached point of view making affirmative statements like a diagnosis. She is both detached from and immersed in her interpretations. In her description of viscosity she states that “the body temperature is low” (75) rather than “my body temperature feels low” and even refers to someone having that form of insanity as “the organism” (75), no longer human. This is in keeping with the medical tendency to categorize the ill as “other”. At one point she uses the “illness” terminology to describe insanity as being like the flu (78).
Both types of insanity (viscosity and velocity) apparently take place as part of Kaysen’s bodily functions; it is not merely a mental disorder. This reflects the standpoint that insanity stems from something uncontrollable, reinforcing that Kaysen did not choose to behave the way she has. According to Kaysen, insanity is something that takes place on a cellular level. This brings to mind her earlier description of the entrance to the parallel world of insanity as passing through a membrane (5). The images are always organic.
The flow-of-consciousness narrative that follows after her brief delineation of the differences between viscosity and velocity insanity helps to explain the type of reasoning behind her decision to cut open her hand to see if there were bones inside. The velocity method, which works through numerous questions and associations that arise from those questions, seems to be the style of thinking she used to lead her to tear away at her hand. There is an intense need for her to understand everything about herself and to know it completely. The description of her thinking about her tongue parallels her thinking about her hand.
In this section of the autobiography Kaysen expresses that she was not able to decide which lens of insanity she saw the world through. She says it in a way that implies that some people have an ability to choose between the two. The issue of choice with regards to insanity is a recurring theme in the book Insanity was viewed as an irresistible choice--“who can resist an opening?” (5)— while her lack of choice between velocity and viscosity is seen as something lucky (78). Her reactions to both shifts in thought seem calmly passive.
Though her portrayal of insanity in this chapter seems stifling and scary, she emphasizes that they both have repetition in common. This can be comforting in itself in the same way that Kaysen came to depend on “checks” as a way of organizing her life and dealing with the overwhelming and transfixing concept of time.
The negative shading to her description comes in anticipating questions that the reader might have about her experience: “Which is worse, overload or underload?” (75) This is a technique she uses often in her narrative, an imagined dialog with the reader which answers the questions they want to know the answer to but are afraid to ask. She began the book by saying “People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well.” This statement serves as a sort of thesis for the book with each subsequent chapter, such as “Velocity and Viscosity” shedding a little more light on it, though she never quite answers it. She warned the reader of this in the first paragraph—“I can’t answer the real question. All I know is that it’s easy” (5).
With the end of this chapter Kaysen poses more questions and leaves them unanswered as “the great mystery of mental illness”. Even someone with ‘mental illness’ cannot fully comprehend it, but she can describe the “day-to-day business of being nuts” (75) better than a doctor.
Copyright 2002. Essay used with permission of author. This essay may not be reproduced in any form without the consent of the author.
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