Susanna Kaysen

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American writer, author of the bestseller "Girl, Interrupted," made into a film starring Winona Ryder in 2000, and several other books. She is popular as a lecturer about her own experiences as a patient at McLean Hospital, Harvard’s private psychiatric hospital. Susanna Kaysen grew up in the privileged world of Cambridge, Massachusetts during the turbulent 1960s. After a half-hearted suicide attempt a few years prior, and a session with a psychiatrist she had never seen before, 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital in 1967. She had been seeking "a rest" and help with self-destructive thoughts. What she got was two years of hospitalization and treatment at the institution renowned for its famous clientele, including Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor and Ray Charles, as well as for its progressive treatments. Nearly 30 years later, author Kaysen wrote about her experiences of a "parallel universe" at McLean in "Girl, Interrupted," published in 1974 and made into a film in 2000. She is also the author of the novels "Asa," "As I Knew Him" and "Far Afield." She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Link to Wikipedia biography