This section of the novel takes place immediately after Esther receives electro convulsive therapy. Esther’s suicidal ideation in this section indicates the negative effects of receiving ECT without proper psychiatric care, as well as the reality that ECT may not always effectively help people suffering from depression. Additionally, this paragraph accurately represents the effect of using ECT inappropriately. Instead of lessening the suicidal ideation Esther has to suffer through, she is instead disincentivized from the act, believing that she was ‘too stupid’ to cut her own wrists. In no way is Esther relieved of the burden of her depressed and suicidal thoughts, instead she just further internalized her self loathing. In Patrick Senuik’s article “I’m shocked: informed consent in ECT and the phenomenological-self” He discusses that informed consent is imperative in delivering effective ECT, however notes that “The specialized form of knowledge with which clinicians are endowed, is one obstacle to proper informed consent. One way to neutralize this obstacle is to place some sense of power back toward the patient. No list of qualities or personal traits could ever tell us who or what a patient is, or is not. A person is the entire way he or she relates to, or is an expression of, her relation to the world…” (18) Esther’s suicidal ideation further proves that without the acknowledgment of self involved in the initial administrations of ECT, she gains none of the positive side effects and it is simply used a method of behavior control. In “‘We Are All Mad Here: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar as a political novel” by Laura de La Parra Ferandez, she describes how Esthers loss of language— a potential side effect of ECT but depicted as a side effect of her poorly treated depression— indicates Esther’s loss of self, writing “Her loss of mastery over language also signifies her lack of mastery over her identity, and her realization of the trap of gender and the lack of choice in the society she lives in”(165). Ultimately, this indicates that the longer Esther is exposed to ECT as a method of behavioral control, the further she will descend into madness. Naturally— as madness and gender transgression are conflated societally— this will further lead her back to ECT. In the novel, she is able to seek help in an inpatient facility and receives treatment from a doctor who provides her with informed consent and gets to understand her sense of self— ultimately leading to her recovery. However, there is another scenario (one that perhaps belonged to the author) where she does not receive the ethical treatment for her mental illness and she perils at her own hand.
