The Sylvia Plath Effect Explored

Sylvia Plath is not someone who requires even a word of prior introduction. Everyone who has fallen in love with classic Western poetry ought to have heard quite a lot about this poetess. For those unfortunate enough not to have glimpsed into the soul-tearing poems of this artist, Sylvia Plath, an American poet, novelist, and short story writer, left an indelible mark on literature. Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1932, as the first daughter of Otto Plath who was an entomologist and Aurelia Schober Plath. She later married her fellow poet, Ted Hughes but unfortunately, their relationship was anything but a happy marriage.

Many consider her the pioneer of the confessional poetry genre. Her best-known works of poetry include “The Colossus and Other Collections” and “Ariel” etc. Another work of hers “The Bell Jar” a semi-auto-biography, was published shortly after her death by suicide in 1963. Sylvia Plath later received the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1982 for her collection titled “The Collected Poems” which was published in 1981 and included all of her unpublished works of poetry. Her mental health was always a question of concern for everyone who cared about her.

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She received a diagnosis of clinical depression towards the end of her life. Many of the horrendous incidents that occurred in her life also became a stimulus to the multiple suicide episodes that she suffered through different phases of her life. On February 11, 1963, they found Plath dead in her apartment. Her head was in the oven, and she had sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children with tape, towels, and rags. Certainly, let’s delve into a specific psychological phenomenon associated with the renowned artist Sylvia Plath.

The Sylvia Plath Effect

The Sylvia Plath effect was a term coined by James C Kaufman in 2001 and can be defined as a psychological phenomenon that addresses the major differences between poets and other artists in their probability of susceptibility to mental illnesses. The term suggests that poets are more susceptible to mental disorders than any other section of people involved in other genres of artwork.

Kaufman further deepened the definition by adding an aspect of gender differences within his explanation of the effect and concluded that female poets are more susceptible to mental disorders than male poets. The idea of associating creativity with mental illnesses did not spring out of nowhere in recent years. Rather, this belief that links between these aspects ranges back to the time of Aristotle.

Proving these beliefs, there have been multiple instances of individuals who have been highly successful and established artists and poets who have suffered from serious mental disorders. In later years, there have been multiple researches that proved the above-mentioned notion as well. However, they came with their fair share of methodological issues, such as selection bias, uncontrolled variables etc., thus posing a question on their credibility.

Read More: The Halo Effect: How Your First Impression May Deceive You

Ludwig’s Research

An example could be one of the eminent researches conducted on the same lines by Ludwig in 1995. Ludwig (1995) undertook a large-scale analysis of over 1000 notable personalities who were the subjects of major biographies published between 1960 and 1990. Over one-fourth of this sample consisted of authors of some kind, including poets, nonfiction writers, and fiction writers.

Ludwig discovered that persons in creative professions (writing, painting, and theatre) had a higher incidence of mental illness than those in non-artistic professions (e.g., commerce, politics, and science), and poets had some of the highest rates of depression and psychosis of any group. Although Ludwig’s decision to use biological subjects as his testing group is ethical, it does represent a risk.

As Rothenberg (1995) points out, biographies of notable individuals, particularly creative artists, frequently emphasize features and stories that could be regarded as indicators of mental illness. Furthermore, people with serious mental illnesses or other issues make excellent book subjects. They are more complex and intriguing. Even while Ludwig’s list of influential people has significant overlap with other Who’s Who type lists, the high proportion of mental illness may not be an accurate portrayal of writers.

Kaufman’s Research

James C Kaufman, the mastermind behind the coining of the term, conducted research that aided him in concluding and hence the definition. In retrospective research of 1,629 writers, Kaufman discovered that poets, particularly female poets, were more likely than fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and playwrights to exhibit symptoms of mental illness, such as suicide attempts or psychiatric hospitalization episodes. In a second analysis of 520 eminent American women, Kaufman discovered that poets were more likely to have mental illnesses and experience personal tragedy than eminent journalists, visual artists, politicians, and actresses. Hence, he dubbed the phenomenon as Slyvia Plath effect, given her life history and her tragic end.

However, these conclusions are highly complex and intrinsic. The process of creativity or creative expression requires the expression of deep emotions. It may remain the stimulus of a greater amount of emotional turmoil in individuals. While creativity levels and levels of mental disorders may correlate, the exact nature of this proposed correlation is still not purely defined. The effect, however, reminds people to approach and deal with mental illnesses and distress with great degrees of sensitivity and acknowledge that creative expression may become a trigger for these individuals to alleviate their emotional disturbances or even reflect their emotional and mental conditions.

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