The treatment of Sylvia Plath

Although Sylvia Plath apparently sought psychotherapeutic help following her first suicide attempt in her twenties, she did not have access to specialized forms of suicide assessment and intervention available in the present day. In this 'thought experiment,' the authors drew on material available in her journals and literary work to formulate a treatment plan for Plath, were she to be seen by a contemporary psychotherapist skilled in voice therapy. In particular, they focused on her inwardness, her preference for fantasy gratification, her self-denial, her addictive attachment to her mother and husband, and her negative thoughts toward self and cynicism toward others. The authors then sketched out suicide risk assessment procedures as they might be applied in her case, and illustrated a hypothetical voice therapy session designed to ameliorate her pertubation and lethality during her last suicidal crisis.