Citation

Matuszka B. Psychiatr. Hung. 2019; 34(2): 131-140.

Affiliation

Pazmany Peter Katolikus Egyetem, Pszichologiai Intezet, Budapest, Hungary, E-mail: matuszka.balazs@btk.ppke.hu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

31417003

Abstract

AIM: The purpose of this present paper is to demonstrate the biographical antecedents and the adverse childhood experiences, which might have possibly contributed to those ambivalent feelings which can be observed in Sylvia Plath's confessional art in relation to her parents.

METHOD: Biographical-, document- and artistic analyzes. The analyzed artistic pieces are the following: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, The Bell Jar, Collected poems (from The Colossus and Ariel books) and the Journals by Sylvia Plath. The reconstruction of the biography was conducted based on international textbooks.

RESULTS: Sylvia Plath at the age of 30, on the 12th of October, 1962 wrote her famous poem, Daddy, which starts with these lines: "You do not do, you do not do /Any more, black shoe/In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white,/Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. Daddy, I have had to kill you./You died before I had time/Marble-heavy, a bag full of God/Ghastly statue with one gray toe/Big as a Frisco seal/And a head in the freakish Atlantic /Where it pours bean green over blue/In the waters off beautiful Nauset./I used to pray to recover you. /Ach, du Dreck." A couple of months later, on the 11th of February 1963. Sylvia Plath committed suicide. Her journal entries and her works all testified that the emotional relationship with her parents significantly contributed to her genuine art and at the same time to the onset of her psychiatric illness. According to her journals, Sylvia Plath reported hate and ambivalent feelings several times to her psychiatrists. It is very likely, that the illness and death of Otto Plath and the emotional crises afterwards might have been that primary experience that might have exercised an adverse effect on Sylvia's life, and what have been composed very vividly in the poem called Daddy.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on the analyzes of the biography, the journals and the poems, it can be stated, that the adverse childhood experiences, Sylvia had to experience during her father's illness, after his death, and during the restructuring of the family system are vital in the understanding of Sylvia Plath's art and her psychopathology.

Language: hu