In an article reviewing health and the humanities, the authors review how inclusions of ECT in literature can humanize the patient perspective writing, “In the case of controversial treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Hilton (2007) describes how novels such as Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963)… can illuminate what such procedures might feel like from the patient’s point of view” (Crawford et al. 6). This quotation provides that perspective, allowing readers to understand Electroconvulsive Therapy beyond its marketed use as a potential cure for anxiety, but as a painful and regrettable decision made by someone seeking help. Additionally, this quotation provides a realistic representation of the pain that patients accessing Electroshock Therapy had to undergo in an effort to resolve their mental illness. In an article regarding informed consent surrounding ECT, author Patrick Seniuk writes that “Proponents and opponents alike take for granted that empirical facts related to risk, harm, and benefit, only become meaningful based on pre-reflective or lived experience.” (9). This demonstrates how little information was available to Esther— and perhaps to Sylvia herself— prior to accessing this controversial treatment. This information, regarding how much medical information is gained from the lived experience of receiving the treatment, is integral in understanding why Esther felt as though she has immediately done something ‘terrible. Esther’s perspective clarifies that the experience of receiving ECT has negatively reinforced the behavior caused by her depression, but has not necessarily made her feel better. Meaning, that this specific experience of ECT is representative of ECT as a form of modifying transgressive behavior through neurological control— not as a method of effective psychiatric treatment.
