["The grasses unload their griefs on my feet" - the therapy of Sylvia Plath]

Psychiatr Hung. 2019;34(2):199-213.
[Article in Hungarian]

Abstract

The study deals with the psychiatric treatment of the writer with a tragic fate, Sylvia Plath. Sylvia's treatment began with electroconvulsive therapy for suicidal thoughts at the age of 20 and soon afterended up in hospital for an attempted suicide with sleeping pills to McLean Hospital.Her treatment was trusted on Doctor Ruth Beuscher with whom she's been remaining in touch directlyor indirectly (phone, mail) all her life. At the age of 30 she passed away committing suicide at her flatin London after having been treated with antidepressant for her assumably psychotic depression.In the article we provide an insight to the main therapeutic events of Sylvia's treatment and invitethe colleagues for an imaginary experiment based on modern knowledge and family system approach with a trauma focus (on theory of structural dissociation)- hoping it provides us with a conclusionto use in the treatment of suicidal patients.

Publication types

  • Biography
  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Creativity*
  • Depressive Disorder / psychology*
  • Depressive Disorder / therapy*
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy
  • Female
  • Grief
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans
  • Poetry as Topic / history*
  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Suicide / history*
  • Suicide / psychology*
  • Suicide Prevention

Personal name as subject

  • Sylvia Plath