What are some of the most famous semi-autobiographical novels?
Perhaps the most famous semi-autobiographical novel, Joyce’s Bildungsroman follows Stephen Dedalus as he begins to buck the traditions of his Irish Catholic childhood, before finally taking leave of Ireland to pursue his ambitions as an artist.
What are some of the best books about depression?
1 Mrs. ... 2 Tender is the Night by F. ... 3 Catcher in the Rye by J.D. ... 4 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963) Originally published under a pseudonym, The Bell Jar is the semi-autobiographical account of Plath’s own clinical depression, a sensation she describes thusly: "Wherever ... More items...
Is there a role for autobiographical memory in depression?
Given the relevance of autobiographical memory for implicit/explicit cognitive and emotional processes, research efforts have been directed to develop novel psychotherapeutic strategies specifically targeting autobiographical memory disturbances in depression.
What are some of the most realistic novels on mental illness?
11 of the Most Realistic Novels on Mental Illness. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925) Click Here To Buy. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1934) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963) I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (pen ...
What is Sylvia Plath known for?
Sylvia Plath was an American writer whose best-known works, including the poems “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” and the novel The Bell Jar, starkly express a sense of alienation and self-destruction that has resonated with many readers since the mid-20th century.
How autobiographical is The Bell Jar?
The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed.
Who is Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar?
Esther Greenwood The protagonist and narrator of the novel, she has just finished her junior year of college. Esther grew up in the Boston suburbs with her mother and brother. Her father died when she was nine years old.
What is the book bell jar about?
The Bell Jar details the life of Esther Greenwood, a college student who dreams of becoming a poet. She is selected for a month-long summer internship as a guest editor of Ladies' Day magazine, but her time in New York City is unfulfilling as she struggles with issues of identity and societal norms.
Why is Sylvia Plath's book called The Bell Jar?
A thin layer of glass separates her from everyone, and the novel's title, itself made of glass, is evolved from her notion of disconnection: the head of each mentally ill person is enclosed in a bell jar, choking on his own foul air.
What are Sylvia Plath poems about?
DaddyLady LazarusTulipsMad Girl's Love SongThe ApplicantEnnuiSylvia Plath/Poems
Who is Dodo Conway?
Dodo Conway is Mrs. Greenwood's fertile neighbor. With six children and another on the way, Dodo is the face of the post-WWII baby boom in the novel.
What does Doreen represent in The Bell Jar?
With her aggressive type of attractiveness, Doreen is an example of the "liberated woman". She smokes, drinks, goes to parties alone and has casual sex with men. She represents one of the roads Esther's life could take if she decided to follow Doreen in her ways.
Who is Jay Cee?
Jay Cee is the editor of Ladies' Day magazine. She skillfully manages all the difficult people whom she has to deal with, and she does it diplomatically; she is a good manager and organizer.
What happens to Esther in the end of the novel The Bell Jar?
Esther awakens to find herself in the hospital. She has survived her suicide attempt with no permanent physical injuries. Once her body heals, she is sent to the psychological ward in the city hospital, where she is uncooperative, paranoid, and determined to end her life.
Who wrote the bell?
Sylvia PlathThe Bell Jar / AuthorSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus ... Wikipedia
Why is The Bell Jar so famous?
Though The Bell Jar traffics in many themes, including classism, sexism, and mental illness, it has become synonymous with depressed and/or moody women. On film and television specifically, it has become a popular visual and textual prop to code an exclusively female experience of sadness.
Why is semi-autobiographical work easier to write?
After all, that kind of book can be easier to write because the author just has to remember aspects of her or his own life. And perhaps such a novel psychologically declutters an author’s brain so that s/he can more easily move on to writing novels with fewer or no autobiographical elements.
Why is it important to write a partly autobiographical book?
A partly autobiographical approach also allows authors to potentially pen very heartfelt books — after all, they lived the emotions — and perhaps provides those writers with some mental therapy, too. Meanwhile, readers learn stuff about an author’s life that they might not learn otherwise. (Of course, many memoirs also have some fictional elements, but that’s a topic for another day.)
Who wrote the movie Barfly?
But Charles Bukowski waited only two years to write Hollywood — a minimally disguised account of doing the screenplay for, and seeing the making of, the movie Barfly starring Mickey Rourke in a Bukowski-ish role. (I read the very funny Hollywood this month.)
Did Dostoevsky recount his experiences?
It’s obvious to readers that Fyodor Dostoevsky was part-fictionally recounting his own Siberian internment experiences in Notes From a Dead House, but to get the novel approved by Russian government censors he couched it as the recollections of a murderer rather than those of a political prisoner like Dostoevsky had been. (I’m in the middle of reading the fascinating Dead House now.)
Why is categorical autobiographical retrieval so exuberant in depression?
A possible explanation why categorical autobiographical retrieval is so exuberant in depression relies on cognitive theories of depression with their emphasis on the activation of underlying negative schemata in this disorder, which arguably consist of well-consolidated negatively valenced categorical themes [5].
What are the features of autobiographical memories in depression?
Another evident feature of autobiographical memories in depression is the propensity to recollect categorical memories. In contrast to specific autobiographical episodes, these overgeneral recollections comprise themes related to repeated events, which present a consistent pattern across many past personal experiences. There is now a large evidence base showing that this overgeneral processing pattern overrides the recall of specific time and place details (i.e., episodic recall) [20, 41, 42].
How do autobiographical memories affect depression?
Autobiographical memories frame and shape our emotional life and provide input for planning and facing our everyday challenges. These memories define who we are and generate an updated sense of self [14], thus constituting the milestones of social communication. Autobiographical memory dysfunction is a hallmark of affective disorders and is maybe the main cause for the ruminative retrieval of overgeneral negative information observed in depression [15, 16]. Thus, we hypothesized that the reactivation of autobiographical memories and reconsolidation may lead to the incorporation of new emotional or specific information into the original trace; this mechanism may play a role in psychotherapeutic approaches for MDD [17]. Indeed, under the umbrella of CBT, some innovative psychotherapeutic techniques for the modification of dysfunctional autobiographical memories in depression have been actively investigated [18, 19].
What are the aims of the autobiographical memory review?
The overarching aims of this review are (1) to provide an overview of autobiographical memory disturbances in depression from a cognitive perspective; (2) to review neuroimaging studies of brain networks disturbed in depression that are also believed to support autobiographical memory processing; and (3) to review emerging evidences of psychotherapeutic techniques targeting autobiographical memory disturbances in depression. We speculate that mechanisms of memory reconsolidation may be explored as a novel target for the modification of dysfunctional autobiographical memories in MDD.
Which theory of memory reconsolidation is referred to as multiple trace theory?
Moscovitch and Nadel proposed a theory for memory reconsolidation referred to as multiple trace theory (MTT) [87]. According to this theory, the hippocampus remains an integral part of the memory trace and it is always activated during retrieval of episodic memories, regardless of the age of the memory.
What is the pervasively negative tone of depression?
One striking clinical feature of patients during a major depressive episode is the pervasively negative tone when they refer to their past. In depression, a systematic autobiographical bias favoring negative experiences is a replicated finding [27, 28], with faster retrieval of negative autobiographical memories when cued as well as a heightened spontaneous recollection of negative memories [29, 30]. A selective attention towards negative events may facilitate encoding of negative autobiographical memories [5, 27]. Moreover, a tendency to interpret ambiguous scenarios in a negatively valenced fashion has been reported [31, 32], which may further contribute to the preferential encoding of negative autobiographical memories in depression.
What is disturbed processing of autobiographical memories?
The disturbed processing of autobiographical memories is a trait-like cognitive manifestation of depression that may contribute to the onset [23–25] and development [26] of the disorder. The next sections discuss the abnormalities of autobiographical memory found in depression.
What was the protagonist's mental illness?
The protagonist of the story might have been suffering from puerperal insanity, a severe form of mental illness labelled in the early 19th century and claimed by doctors to be triggered by the mental and physical strain of giving birth.
What was the disorder that Mitchell described in his book Wear and Tear?
The story can also be seen as a rich account of neurasthenia or nervous exhaustion, a disorder first defined by Mitchell in his book Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overworked in 1871. Neurasthenia took hold in modernising America in the closing decades of the 19th century, as incessant work was said to ruin the mental health of its citizens. Women were reported to be putting themselves at risk of nervous collapse with their eagerness to take on roles unsuited to their gender, including higher education or political activities. “City-bred” women, Mitchell concluded, might be poorly equipped to fulfil the natural functions of motherhood.
What is the yellow wallpaper about?
The Yellow Wallpaper enlightens the reader on women’s health, motherhood, mental breakdown and its treatment, as well as feminism and gender relations in late 19th-century America. Though many details are changed, the story is semi-autobiographical, drawing on Gilman’s own health crisis and particularly her fraught relationship with Dr Silas Weir Mitchell – who carved a reputation for treating nervous exhaustion following his experiences as a Civil War doctor – and who was brought in to treat her in 1886. In Gilman’s own words, he drove her to “mental agony” before she rejected his treatment and began once again to write.
Who was the protagonist in the story of Gilman?
Gilman was treated with the “rest cure”, devised by Mitchell, as is the protagonist of the story; like an infant, she was dosed, fed at regular intervals and above all ordered to rest. Mitchell instructed Gilman to live as domestic a life as possible “and never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live”.
What was the plight of women in the 19th century?
The story highlights the plight of many women during the 19th century. All women were seen by physicians as susceptible to ill health and mental breakdown by reason of their biological weakness and reproductive cycles. And those who were creative and ambitious were deemed even more at risk.
What is Clarissa Dalloway's book about?
A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a high society English woman. Through the character of Septimus, a shell-shocked veteran of World War I, this book criticizes the treatment of the mentally ill. Woolf used her own struggles with bipolar disorder to inform Septimus’s character.
What is mental illness in fiction?
There is a great tradition of mental illness in fiction. The Victorians loved stashing mad women up in towers or attics, where they could slow-w-wly peel the wallpaper from the walls or moan and groan with such abandon that it would frighten the young governesses trying to catch some sleep down below. Later, books would introduce readers to evil nurses, forced lobotomies, and botched attempts at electro-shock therapy. Needless to say, mental illness was even less understood in the past than it is today.
How many books talk about mental illness?
The 11 novels listed below talk candidly of mental illness, too. Sometimes the veil of fiction permits authors to tell even truer stories — they can write without worrying about their own reputations or the reactions from their family members. Their books give us a deeper understanding of mental illness and the way we deal with mental illness in our culture. They also do what all great literature should do — let us get to know and care about the characters as people.
Who is Deborah Blau's doctor?
Her story echoes the author’s experiences, and the doctor in the story was based on her real-life doctor, the German psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.
Who wrote the novel Tender is the Night?
Set on the French Riviera in the 1920s, Tender is the Night is the story of psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his wife Nicole... who also happens to be his patient.
Who wrote Disturbing the Peace?
Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates (1975) This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of John C. Wilder, an adman-turned-screenwriter who spends some time in a mental hospital and suffers (as Yates did) from alcohol-induced delusions.
What is the depression in Esther Greenwood's novel?
Additionally, the depression and struggle to fit in to society which Sylvia Plath faced as a young woman is symbolic of Esther Greenwood’s character and the depression she endures within the novel. The semi-autobiographical novel centers Esther and her struggle trapped inside the metaphorical ‘bell jar’ of 1950’s American societal expectations.
What does Esther's desire to fit in to the American good girl image reflect?
As Esther’s character develops throughout the novel, her desire to fit in to the American ‘good girl’ image reflects her dissatisfaction with society, which can be attributed to her childhood, and the unsatisfactory attention received from her parents.
What is the theory of Esther's dissatisfaction with society in the Bell Jar?
The Psychoanalytic Theory on Esther’s Dissatisfaction with Society in the Bell Jar. May 6, 2021 by Essay Writer. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, published in 1963, is a Roman a Clef written in the first-person perspective of Esther Greenwood, a young woman who is in a downward spiral that ends in an attempted suicide and her challenge to regain sanity.
Why is the application of the unconscious important?
An application of the unconscious provides a more convincing explanation of Esther’s desire to fit into society as it explains how her Oedipal trauma stemmed from lack of parental support which manifests as her lack of identity and desire to be someone she is not.
What is the theme of Esther's book?
The novel centers on the core theme of Esther’s depression and the significant external reasons for her decline.
Is the feminist reading of Esther better than the Freudian reading?
The Feminist reading ultimately proves to be superior in revealing meaning within the novel, whilst Freudian psychoanalysis was able to provide explanation for Esther’s psychoanalytical profile, its limited focus prevented such a reading from identifying the influence of the society she lived in. However, a Feminist reading proved superior in terms of analysis, as it further broadened the context of Esther’s dissatisfaction with society. This in turn, led to understanding greater meaning being derived from the novel, as given the psychologically damaging interactions Esther encountered, the overall manner which society controls Esther’s life should be considered as negative. As Esther is a symbol of the consequences of the patriarchal society she lives in, the source of the complications towards her dissatisfaction are not to be considered as the result of her own psyche. Instead, it is the oppressive hand of a patriarchal society that enforces that women are less to men.