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The Bell Jar: allow the humanities to humanise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2025

Piyush Pushkar Open the ORCID record for Piyush Pushkar [Opens in a new window]
Piyush Pushkar*
Affiliation:
A clinical lecturer in the Division of Psychology & Mental Health in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester and a specialist trainee in forensic psychiatry with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust, Manchester, UK. His current research focuses on guilt and shame among mentally unwell people who have been convicted of a criminal offence.
*
Correspondence Piyush Pushkar. Email: [email protected]
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Summary

This commentary responds to Carona & Atanázio's discussion of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar in this issue of BJPsych Advances. Although I agree with their emphasis on empathy and sensitivity in medical practice, I argue that they overlook the broader insights of the medical humanities. By examining themes of suicide and patriarchy in The Bell Jar, I highlight how the novel itself, and the humanities scholars who have studied it, provide a counternarrative to the biomedical model, urging a more holistic understanding of psychological distress. I advocate engaging with Plath's work beyond diagnostic criteria, appreciating its cultural and structural dimensions.

Keywords

Medical humanitiespsychiatry and the artssuicidestructural competencypatriarchy
Type
Commentary
Information
BJPsych Advances , First View , pp. 1 - 3
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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Footnotes

†

Commentary on… The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath's first-person narrative of core elements for diagnosing and treating clinical depression. See this issue.

References

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