Comments on: Writers Who Suffered From the Sylvia Plath Effect

By: secretary for Eva-Marchelline

secretary for Eva-Marchelline — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:28:29 +0000

a correction to the above comment

Dr. Eva-Marchelline D’Zcholie
M.D.

By: Eva-Marchelline

Eva-Marchelline — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:26:58 +0000

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

By: cat

cat — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:56:09 +0000

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!

By: Andie

Andie — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:39:29 +0000

@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.

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:54:17 +0000

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?

By: JOI

JOI — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:19:41 +0000

Hey, and don’t forget Elmira Birkson.
Who?
See, you forgot her already.

By: G

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:43:54 +0000

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.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:37:55 +0000

Sylvia Plath DID NOT stick her head inside an oven. She lcoked herself in a kitchen with a gas stove turned on. Huge difference.

By: dietaether

dietaether — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:35:49 +0000

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.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:51:54 +0000

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.

By: requiredname

requiredname — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:50:38 +0000

legalize marijuana, for a better future!

By: faburobin

faburobin — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:12:04 +0000

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!)

By: Herminius

Herminius — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:01:50 +0000

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.

By: hark

hark — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:35:00 +0000

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.

By: aleph

aleph — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:33:56 +0000

Don’t forget Anna Kavan, who I suspect might have stronly influenced Plath. I’m really surprised the two aren’t often mentioned together.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:36:47 +0000

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…

By: bean

bean — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:29:18 +0000

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…

By: donna

donna — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:09:32 +0000

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.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:09:22 +0000

What do I know, I’m an MS Excel guy.

By: L

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:57:51 +0000

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?

By: Amber Waves

Amber Waves — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:48:31 +0000

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.

By: Peggy-O

Peggy-O — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:09:58 +0000

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.

By: emptyminded

emptyminded — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:07:16 +0000

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).

By: Icup

Icup — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:52:49 +0000

Poor Virginia Woolf had an Adams Apple!

/just sayin

By: Jess

Jess — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:52:48 +0000

I’ve read a few studies that argued that there was a link between creativity and psychotisism.

By: Philip Chapman-Bell

Philip Chapman-Bell — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:46:31 +0000

Please don’t say, “published.” Gad.

Instead, read Cottage Street, 1953.

By: kat

kat — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:43:34 +0000

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.

By: kat

kat — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:41:04 +0000

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.

By: VonSkippy

VonSkippy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:36:27 +0000

If only more professional poets would follow the trend.

By: bean

bean — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:33:21 +0000

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.