Recalling the Bell Jar

Abstract

Ironically, in Aurelia Plath’s own assessment, the crucial event of Sylvia’s life was her breakdown and recovery.¹ That her mother never admitted any complicity in that psychological malaise was, as we have seen, endemic to her psychology — and, of course, to her daughter’s. Mrs. Plath tended to focus on what most readers would think were the externals of the situation: whose car they drove to the out-patient facility, or how Aurelia managed her work schedule to be home most of the time with her daughter. One element of that continuum of details which Mrs. Plath seldom mentions was the existence of what Sylvia saw as frightening electroconvulsive shock treatments — those given during the summer by a psychologist she did not respect, and those given during her rehabilitation at McLean Hospital, this time under the care of Dr. Ruth Buescher, a psychiatrist she did admire and respect — and love.