ECT Benefit Denial in The Red Comet (the New Biography of Sylvia Plath)

In the excellent, 1100-page biography of the American poet and novelist, Sylvia Plath, the subject of her ECT treatment is extensively covered, including the below passage about the speed of her response:

P.297: 

    "And yet, those [ECT] treatments administered at McLean seemed to heal-at least in the short term. Dr. Beuscher thought Sylvia made a startlingly quick recovery, as did Sylvia herself. Five years later, Plath was still trying to under- 

P.299:

    "Psychoanalytic readings of the novel [The Bell Jar] maintain that Joan's suicide is a symbolic victory for Esther, and even for Plath herself-that by killing Joan, Plath symbolically "killed off" her depressive, life-threatening double. In real life, however, Jane pursued a rigorous course of psychotherapy at McLean, recovered her mental health, and eventually became a successful psychiatrist. Sylvia, who received little real psychotherapy at McLean and was instead prescribed insulin coma therapy and shock treatment, suffered a fatal relapse in 1963."

P.306:

"...Does she [Esther Greenwood, protagonist of The Bell Jar] decide to abide by feminine norms under the threat of more shock treatment? Is she really "better," or has she just been reprogrammed?"  

It seems everyone involved, except Dr. de Marneffe, wants to ascribe Plath's recovery to anything but her ECT. The author, Heather Clark is decidedly negative about psychiatry and ECT throughout the book. All the old tropes are here, including the opinion that Plath's "cure" would have been more durable had she undergone psychotherapy rather than ECT.

We have discussed speed of response to ECT in several prior blog posts- Dr. de Marneffe was probably the one who got it right.

Many people have speculated (the "Goldwater Rule" notwithstanding) that Plath would have recovered again in 1963, had she been given ECT in a timely manner.

For anyone interested in Sylvia Plath, I recommend a full read (~ one month).