Susanna Kaysen biography

Susanna Kaysen Biography

Susanna Kaysen was born on 11 November, 1948, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father is the economist Carl Kaysen (b.1920), formerly a professor at MIT and advisor to President John F. Kennedy.  In 1967 she attended the Commonwealth School before being sent to McLean Hospital where she underwent psychiatric treatment for depression for 18-months having been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.  Her first novel, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987; followed by a second novel in 1990, Far Afield.  In 1993 she published the memoir that she is best known for, Girl Interrupted, that drew on her experience at McLean Hospital.  It was made into a film in 1999.  All her books draw on her own personal experiences to varying degrees.  She published a memoir, The Camera My Mother Gave Me, in 2001.

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