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35 Comments to "Writers Who Suffered From the Sylvia Plath Effect"
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Anonymous
March 18th, 2008 at
5:07 pm
I’m a writer myself, and female to boot, so this question’s been dogging me, too. I used to think, before I really wrote much for public consumption, that writers were suicidal because they had to remain socially aloof, that they couldn’t participate in life and observe it at the same time, and this would, naturally, make them sad, at least, if not hopelessly lonely.
Now I think that writers’ block and depression are the same thing, that they have the same consequences and causes. I think that writing comes from the same fog-bog of the near sub-conscious as one’s self-perception, that they are fished from the same place, that inspiration becomes everything that’s good, and negative feedback becomes everything that’s bad. They’re tied together the minute you become a writer, like the Argentinean dollar was connected to the American. What drags one, drags the other.
I would say that nothing but an unbreakable ego will stave this off, but it didn’t work with Hemingway, did it?
Future commenters: Go ahead, tear this comment to pieces. I’ll just go cry in a broom closet or something.
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CheeseDuck
March 18th, 2008 at
5:41 pm
Sooo… Female writers are emo?
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alanocu
March 18th, 2008 at
5:45 pm
great comment #1 from Anonymous - stay out of the broom closet; you are much more useful out here with your good insight
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strells
March 18th, 2008 at
5:57 pm
Don’t forget Iris Chang, who committed suicide in 2004… leaving behind a note about how the CIA and government out to get her.
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Magicmike
March 18th, 2008 at
5:57 pm
I wonder if this is a case of causes masquerading as effects… The word “susceptible” worries me - Post hoc ergo non propter hoc and all that. It seems at least worth investigating whether or not mentally unstable people select the profession, rather than the other way around.
Even though there are (proportionally) very few mentally unstable people, it would not require many of them to take up the pen for the effect to be noticeable.
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bean
March 18th, 2008 at
6:33 pm
Magicmike-
I tend to agree with you. People with eccentric or escapist personalities are more likely to feel like outcasts, more likely to be creative, and more likely to become depressed. It’s a vicious cycle. There have been males with similar lives, most notable painters like Van Gogh, and novelists like Hemingway.I’m not sure I understand brightening our day by posting about suicidal people, but that book club could be the Dead Poets Society, after this.
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VonSkippy
March 18th, 2008 at
6:36 pm
If only more professional poets would follow the trend.
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kat
March 18th, 2008 at
6:41 pm
i’m a published poet as well as someone who suffers from severe depression and here is my take on the issue:
i think when someone suffers from a mental illness, finding a way to express the internal/eternal battle tends to verge towards the more artistic side of life. so rather than being a poet who becomes depressed and kills themself, it is rather someone who is depressed and also writes poetry, loses the battle and kills themself.
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kat
March 18th, 2008 at
6:43 pm
as a side note to the first comment, i personally disagree with writer’s block and depression being the same. i find that my poetry thrives more when i feel depressed.
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Philip Chapman-Bell
March 18th, 2008 at
6:46 pm
Please don’t say, “published.” Gad.
Instead, read Cottage Street, 1953.
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Jess
March 18th, 2008 at
6:52 pm
I’ve read a few studies that argued that there was a link between creativity and psychotisism.
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Icup
March 18th, 2008 at
6:52 pm
Poor Virginia Woolf had an Adams Apple!
/just sayin
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emptyminded
March 18th, 2008 at
7:07 pm
I believe that some people are born with an overly active inner monologue. The constant rumination of ideas, concepts, and (especially) the ‘what ifs’ results in an urge to seek a release of the inner thoughts through literary expression. God knows my inner monologue only shuts up when I write, even when what I write is crap (which others tell me isn’t crap but I definitely perceive it as crap which leads me to believe that being overly critical of yourself is another trait of the same condition).
Look at J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonegut, Steven King, et al; none of them are right in the head. I suspect that suicidal behavior is more pronounced in women writers and poets in that since, historically there were more barriers to getting published, those who were published were really, really good (ergo closer to the wings of madness).
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Peggy-O
March 18th, 2008 at
7:09 pm
It’s easier to go through life not drifting into the deeper end of the pool…poetry is often the outward expression for these intrepid “deep sea divers” of philosophy. Tis a heavy burden to bear: knowing, feeling seeing all the foibles, follies, imperfections, beauties and cruelties of man. Too heavy for some? I don’t think poetry makes one suicidal, but those that are constantly involved in such heavy matter…eventually can be crushed by them.
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Amber Waves
March 18th, 2008 at
7:48 pm
Firstly, I laughed so hard reading your last line, “…but I am a little bit relieved to know I have no talent for poetry whatsoever.”
Secondly, I am a woman and a writer, and I have been writing poetry since elementary school. As a teenager I did have a very dark view of the world. Everything with despair, darkness and gloom. But I was more entranced with the theme, seeing as I have always been a huge science fiction fan and dark scifi like Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica are in my opinion, the best stuff out there. I am not however, and never have been depressed. A bit annoyed at times, always ready to smack someone for setting me off, but never thinking how much better the world would be without me. I mean, look at all the cool things there are to enjoy. If nothing else, heck, Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica starts april 4th. If that’s not a good reason to live, I don’t know what is. -
L
March 18th, 2008 at
7:57 pm
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does being a writer make you more prone to mental illness? Or does mental illness make you more prone to write?
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Christophe
March 18th, 2008 at
8:09 pm
What do I know, I’m an MS Excel guy.
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donna
March 18th, 2008 at
8:09 pm
The misunderstandings here about mental illness are sad.
From NIHM:
About 5.7 million American adults or about 2.6 percent of the population age 18 and older in any given year,1 have bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder typically develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. However, some people have their first symptoms during childhood, and some develop them late in life. It is often not recognized as an illness, and people may suffer for years before it is properly diagnosed and treated. Like diabetes or heart disease, bipolar disorder is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person’s life.
“Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to live. It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological in the experience of it; an illness that is unique in conferring advantage and pleasure, yet one that brings in its wake almost unendurable suffering and, not infrequently, suicide.”
“I am fortunate that I have not died from my illness, fortunate in having received the best medical care available, and fortunate in having the friends, colleagues, and family that I do.”
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., An Unquiet Mind, 1995, p. 6.
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bean
March 18th, 2008 at
8:29 pm
Donna-
That is indeed a very nice quote about manic-depression, but not all of those writers were diagnosed as bipolar, or expressed the proper diagnostic criteria. Without resurrecting them and having a long conversation, its hard for us to say whether they had bipolar I, bipolar II, major depression, schizophrenia or any number of personality disorders… -
Cathy
March 18th, 2008 at
9:36 pm
Thank GOD better meds are available today than when ANY of these people were alive (yes, including the one who died in 1999!) Just imagine, if Virginia Woolf had access to Seroquel and Lamictal…
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aleph
March 18th, 2008 at
10:33 pm
Don’t forget Anna Kavan, who I suspect might have stronly influenced Plath. I’m really surprised the two aren’t often mentioned together.
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hark
March 18th, 2008 at
10:35 pm
i once read that suicides tend to be of above-average intelligence, which makes sense. asking lots of questions about the world is a pretty good recipe for depression. what i call the tyranny of aesthetics: the greater your ability to discern fineness of experience, the more things will disappoint you. ignorance may well be bliss.
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Herminius
March 19th, 2008 at
8:01 am
You can add to that list two more female writers from Argentina: Alfonsina Storni and Alejandra Pizarnik.
Alfonsina Storni walked into the sea ( like Virginia Woolf), Alejandra Pizarnik overdosed on Seconal.
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faburobin
March 19th, 2008 at
8:12 am
Kay Redfield Jamison wrote a book about the link between creativity and madness called “Touched by Fire”. It’s a very well-written and engrossing book that helped me make sense of my daughter’s and my diagnoses of bipolar disorder. Her book “Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide” is also a great book, despite the subject matter.
I also have found that I write better poetry when I’m depressed. (not that it’d ever reach the level of the ladies profiled!)
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requiredname
March 19th, 2008 at
8:50 am
legalize marijuana, for a better future!
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Melissa
March 19th, 2008 at
12:51 pm
I think it’s that creative people are often not likely to get the help that would keep them from suicide. First of all, people around them often fail to notice the signs of illness because creative people channel the dark things into art rather than shutting down, and mania goes unnoticed, masking itself as periods of intense creative output. And the regular eccentricity that makes them brilliant can hide the signs of things that are really serious. It’s simply harder to tell where the artsy weird ends and the disturbed begins.
Secondly, even if the condition comes to light, creative people are less likely to be willing to submit to drugs or therapy that might change the way their mind thinks. They fear in tinkering with the mind to stop the insanity, they’ll lose the genius,too. A plain normal mind is not a good option for creative people. They’d rather deal with the bad than risk losing the good. Sadly, sometimes they fail at coping with the bad and lose everything.
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dietaether
March 19th, 2008 at
1:35 pm
This is only half related, but half is a pretty good start. The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) lists the personality type INFP as one of the smallest of the general population with a disproportionate representation of great writers. (http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP_car.html goes so far as to state “It’s worth mentioning that nearly all of the truly great writers in the world have been INFPs.”)
Similarly, an informal poll (http://www.mcmanweb.com/article235.htm) found that the introverted and idealist personality types (INF)are most likely to report being diagnosed with depression. I personally believe that both are linked to personality type, being a oft-depressed INFP writer-type i fit the mold fairly well. -
Tamara
March 19th, 2008 at
3:37 pm
Sylvia Plath DID NOT stick her head inside an oven. She lcoked herself in a kitchen with a gas stove turned on. Huge difference.
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G
March 19th, 2008 at
5:43 pm
Here’s the thing, you can characterize anyone as having a mental illness. This type of “mystery” can be attributed to anyone with talent coupled with fame. Like the “27 club” of musicians. The reason we are all shocked is because we think someone who is beautiful, successful, or extremely gifted would have the ticket to happiness. Yet we are all susceptible to our own demons we have to fight. There is nothing to say women writers are likely to commit suicide than people tend to pair depression with women authors who’ve committed suicide. Depression is a crazy hall of mirrors where nothing seems to feel right, look right, or even seem right no matter what the public or loved ones tell you.
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JOI
March 19th, 2008 at
6:19 pm
Hey, and don’t forget Elmira Birkson.
Who?
See, you forgot her already. -
Claire
March 20th, 2008 at
6:54 am
Is it actually a higher percentage of the population, or is it just the effect of a spotlight? Also, can I be considered a poet even though I haven’t published anything? so that if I did away with myself (see that technical jargon) would I be considered on the poet/writer suicide side? or the joe-blow suicide side?
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Andie
March 21st, 2008 at
9:39 am
@G– You’re absolutely right. The public tends to notice unnatural or a bad death when it happens to famous people. You could probably put together a convincing argument about all the joe nobodies in boring, meaningless jobs committing suicide because they don’t have the creative abilities to express themselves.
Whether or not one needs to be nigh suicidal to be a creative genius, I don’t know, but it’s not a requirement to be good at your craft.
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cat
March 27th, 2008 at
11:56 am
i agree with kat…i consider myself a painter and i am bipolar…but i am far more productive when i am depressed.
it makes medication very difficult, because my mood is so much better, but then i am not creating anything and i absolutely love being so swept away in a painting fit!
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Eva-Marchelline
April 29th, 2008 at
3:26 am
there is mental illness, and there is also attention. There have been accounts that writers who spend lengthy amounts of time alone begin to think that instead of writing such long books for a small amount of recognition, they could commit suicide, and go out with a big bang that will have there names seen everywhere, and with only five minutes effort involved. Suicide is a choice, normal death isn’t. Feel sorry for those people.
Eva-Marchelline D’Zcholie
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secretary for Eva-Marchelline
April 29th, 2008 at
3:28 am
a correction to the above comment
Dr. Eva-Marchelline D’Zcholie
M.D.
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