It's said that the there is a fine line between insanity and creative genius. According to James Kaufman, that distinction may be more exact among creative writers - female poets especially - where it might not exist at all. In 2001, Kaufman came up with a theory that he called "The Sylvia Plath Effect", which suggested that writers are more prone to mental illness than any other profession.
Now, I write for a living, I'm a woman and I have bipolar disorder. Thank goodness I have no taste for poetry or else I would be the poster child for Kaufman's theory.
Sylvia Plath, for whom the phenomenon is named, battled depression her entire life. In fact her novel "The Bell Jar", which is about depression, is considered to be largely autobiographical. In it she details suicide attempts, hospitalisation and shock therapy with stark clarity and understanding. She didn't only write novels, however, she was also a critically acclaimed poet, which may or may not have been her downfall. Despite a seemingly sublime life with a thriving career, children and a husband (poet Ted Hugh, from whom she was separated at the time), on the 11th February, 1963, Sylvia Plath gassed herself in her own oven.
Anne Sexton was also a successful poet, and was part of a close circle of other successful poets, including Sylvia Plath. Unlike Sylvia, and in fact unlike many people of that time, she was open about the state of her mental health, never shying away from the fact that she suffered from bipolar disorder (my apprehension increases). It's perhaps ironic that after Plath's death, Sexton penned a moving poem about Plath, which she aptly called "Sylvia's Death". 11 years later, after lunch with another famous female poet, Maxine Kumin, Sexton also gassed herself, not in her oven but in her car.
Virginia Woolf almost epitomises the Sylvia Plath effect more than Sylvia Plath does. She had two nervous breakdowns early in her short life, of which each occurred after the death of a parent. The second was so bad that she had to be institutionalised for a while. Other tragic incidents also undoubtedly left their mark on Woolf, so that after a lifetime of suffering, she finally drowned herself in a river near her home. She was 59 years old. While there is no official diagnosis on Woolf's condition, many psychiatrists believe that she exhibited all the signs of bipolar disorder. My apprehension increases even more, especially considering that Virginia Woolf wasn't even a poet: she wrote novels and essays.
Iris Murdoch, who was a brilliant novelist, did not appear to suffer from any mental disorders while young, but she did get Alzheimer's disease, which cost her her brilliant mind. Fantasy writer, Terry Pratchett, who is neither female nor a poet, is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He is fortunate in that medicine has made significant advancements since Murdoch's time. The disease's progress can now be slowed and controlled, but still can't be cured, and it can't be stopped.
It seems that however you look at it, some writers are damned. They can suffer unimaginable mental anguish while young or they can suffer unimaginable mental disintegration when they're older. It's a no-win situation, but all things considered I would rather be able to write than be able to do anything else. If the paltry cost is my sanity, I'll gladly pay it. Life's more interesting this side of the fine line anyway.
Recommended sites:
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/03/18/writers-who-suffered-from-the-sylvia-plath-effect/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Employers Jobs work opportunities and vacancies one of the leading site directories for information on work opportunities and job vacancies, as well as developing trends in the professional world.
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