Toward a Topography of the Parallel Universe
Kaysen begins her account of mental illness and hospitalization with a question often posed to her: how did she end up there? Kaysen believes that people are curious about the circumstances of her hospital stay primarily to discover whether they might find themselves in the same situation. "It's easy," she says, to find oneself in a "parallel universe" of mental illness. Georgina, Kaysen's roommate at the hospital, was stricken with severe depression during her junior year at Vassar. While watching a movie, Georgina realized that she was undergoing some kind of mental breakdown. Most people suffering from mental illness do not enter the parallel universe immediately, Kaysen says. Instead, they catch brief glimpses of this other world where everything is different, including time, the laws of physics, and even the way everyday things appear to the eye. Eventually, the temptation to cross over is irresistible, and the alternate reality......
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Approximate Word Count: 5870
Approximate Pages: 23 (260 words per double-spaced page) |