Plath’s prose set in psychiatric hospitals captures the ableism present in mid-twentieth-century psychiatry. In ‘Tongues of Stone,’ ‘Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams,’ and The Bell Jar, disability and recovery are portrayed in a complex way. The aim of this research is to explore Plath’s recovery narratives in the context of psychiatry and psychiatric movements, ableism, and body dysmorphic disorder. These four concepts are intersectional and come together in this comprehensive study of Plath’s fiction set in psychiatric hospitals. The three works of fiction I discuss can be categorised as recovery narratives, yet do not fit perfectly into this genre; Plath both subverts and conforms to the genre as a critique of psychiatric treatment. Plath explores the experience of disability, but all three protagonists show an ambivalence towards recovery. The protagonists are denied a space to sit with their disabilities, which Plath critiques through her prose. Plath’s protagonists all receive ableist treatment from those around them, particularly psychiatric staff, friends, family, and acquaintances. Through the portrayal of ableism, Plath critiques the psychiatric system as a lack of care is provided. Although Plath challenges ableism, there is an irony that Plath uses physically ableist language to write about the experience of ableism for mental illness. Plath’s language is reflective of mid-twentieth-century understandings of disability. When the protagonists use ableist language, it often reflects their state of mind; Plath questions what it means for a disabled person to recover into an ableist society. Her viewpoints often align with anti-psychiatry as she questions the usefulness of psychiatric treatment which traumatises her protagonists through forced treatment. Body dysmorphia and ableism are intersectional; when Plath’s protagonists lose their autonomy in the psychiatric system, it causes them to disconnect from their bodies. Plath conveys dysmorphic relationships to the body due to ableism through moments of misrecognition of the self which occur in psychiatric hospital settings.
| Date of Award | 9 May 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Jodie Matthews (Main Supervisor) & David Rudrum (Co-Supervisor) |
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