title: The Bell Jar: A Novel
author:  Sylvia Plath 
description: Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. <b>The Bell Jar</b> tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.
zlib_text: "If	Writing	Is	Not	an	Outlet,	What	Is?":
  Sylvia	Plath	and	The	Bell	Jar
  JEFFREY	BERMAN
  
  e-Book	2015	International	Psychotherapy	Institute
  From	The	Talking	Cure	by	Jeffrey	Berman
  Copyright	©	1985	by	JEFFREY	BERMAN
  All	Rights	Reserved
  Created	in	the	United	States	of	America
  
  "If	Writing	Is	Not	an	Outlet,	What	Is?":	Sylvia
  Plath	and	The	Bell	Jar
  [He]	helped	me	up	on	the	wall,	and	in	my	tight	skin,	I	tried	to	step	over	the
  spikes;	they	pierced	my	skin,	my	hands,	and	I	felt	nothing,	thinking	from
  the	great	distance	that	I	might	at	last	lie	on	a	bed	of	spikes	and	not	feel	it,
  like	the	yogi,	like	Celia	Copplestone	[sic],	crucified,	near	an	anthill,	at	last,
  peace,	and	the	nails	went	through	my	hands.	.	.	.
  The	Journals	of	Sylvia	Plath1
  Sylvia	 Plath's	 identification	 with	 Celia	 Coplestone's	 crucifixion	 is	 but
  one	of	the	many	striking	similarities	between	the	worlds	of	The	Cocktail	Party
  and	The	Bell	Jar.	 Despite	 the	 extensive	 research	 on	 Plath's	 work,	 little	 has
  been	written	abo