Sylvia Plath: A protocol analysis of her last poems

Author(s): Wenckstern, S.

Journal/Book: Death Stud. 1998; 22: 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007-1598. Hemisphere Publ Corp. 615-635.

Abstract: Personal documents have a significant place in psychological research. Suicide notes, diaries, novels, poems, and so on allow us to better understand the suicidal mind. The works of Sylvia Plath-a poet who killed herself at age 30-are prime examples for such protocol study. This article examines the last 6 months of Plath's poetry, revealing a suicidal malaise. Associating the results to the lives of Cesare Pavese and the case study of Natalie, a Terman-Shneidman subject of the intellectually gifted, the study shows a unity thema that facilitates the process of death. The poems reveal such themes as unbearable pain, loss, and abandonment that likely contributed significantly to death becoming the only solution.

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Keyword(s): SUICIDE

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