Psychoanalysis

reading of Sylvia
Plath

By Julia Nigg

Introduction

Psychoanalytical reading

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung

Psychoanalysis interprets dreams and fantasies

Insight for resolution of problems

Fundamentals of psychoanalysis

Behaviour determined by childhood events

Repressed emotions can result in mental or emotional

disturbances

Example: depression

Bringing this material into the conscious mind, frees the

mind

Personal reading

Psychoanalysis allows understanding

Presence of Jungian theories

Release of repressed emotions through writing

Bringing material in the conscious mind

Quote

Jung conceptualises depression as a damming up of energy

which, when released, may take on a more positive direction.

Energy is trapped because of a neurotic or psychological

problem but, if released, actually helps the overcoming of the
problem. (A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis)

Mirror

Speaker appears to be in deep reflection

Writing of a broken mind

Bringing forth compartmentalised truths

Mirror
Finding her inner self
Reflects, provides clarity

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

(10-12)

Jealousy,
possibly of
others who
have found
themselves.

Further evidence

Jung also writes that clarification represents a

conversion of a vague feeling into a more precise idea or
image to which the person can relate. (A critical
dictionary of Jungian analysis)

Lake and mirror are an attempt at clarification

Secondary theories

Theory taken from Dying is an Art: A Psychological Analysis of Sylvia

Plath and her Poetry

Plaths poetry is not confessional

Speakers vent rather than confess misery

Problems are psychologically planted deep within her

Writing is an attempt to free her mind

Freud and Plath

Theory relies on Freuds Morning Melancholia

Plath found it to be relatable

Took Freuds advice to use writing to self-heal

Most present in Daddy

Daddy

Psychological in nature

Narcissistic love for her father coupled with hatred

towards him

Daddy
Matter-of-fact. Pure anger and hatred

Daddy, I have had to kill you.

You died before I had time-(6-7)

Slightly ambiguous

Daddy
Loss of father at an early age

I was ten when they buried you.

Attempted suicide

At twenty I tried to die

And get back, back, back to you.
(57-59)

Repetition conveys her

obsession with him

Analysis

Poem is the epitome of the psychological analysis done

with Plaths poetry

Correlates with Freuds Mourning and Melancholia

Fathers death had largest impact on her life

Frees herself of through her poetry

Conclusion

Most appropriate reading

Poetry is not confessional

Insight into an incredibly intelligent mind

Her self-knowledge was terrifying

Works Cited

1. ." Digication E-Portfolio. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

<https://bu.digication.com/wr150k8_bppao/Dying_is_an_Art_A_Psychological_
Analysis_of_Sylvia>.
2. Samuels, Andrew, Bani Shorter, and Fred Plaut. Depression. A Critical
Dictionary of Jungian Analysis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. 41.
Print.