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The Bell Jar: Esther’s Experience with Therapy

 TW// Suicide


All in all, Esther’s experience with therapy was pretty bad (not only because it was the 1940s and ECT was bad and the only option usually!) Esther’s negative experiences with Dr. Gordon definitely led her to become more suicidal. He doesn’t do ECT correctly and she never really feels comfortable talking to him so they make no progress in their sessions. 

The majority of those negative experiences stem from the fact that Esther is unable to “break up” with Dr. Gordon. This is an issue even today because it’s a common misconception that you can’t leave your therapist if you feel things aren’t working with them. When reflecting on Dr. Gordon Esther says he’d “tell me why I couldn't sleep and why I couldn't read and why I couldn't eat and why everything people did seemed so silly, because they only died in the end. And then, I thought, he would help me, step by step, to be myself again” (Plath 68). She was expecting their time together to go much, much differently and she had a sort of idealization of how treatment would work as well. Additionally, a lot of people are scared or hesitant to find someone else once they’ve already started as well. That’s definitely the case for Esther, she seems pretty unwilling to get treated in the first place and she probably doesn’t know of/ have any other options.

Furthermore, the fact that Esther isn’t ready to start therapy makes her experience much worse (though it’s not her fault because she was forced into it). Whenever Dr. Gordon asks how she’s feeling, she barely says a word. Not only is she uncomfortable around him, she seems hesitant or unable to really express her issues in the first place, which definitely makes it hard for a therapist to help. For that reason, her mother relays that "Doctor Gordon doesn't think you've improved at all. He thinks you should have some shock treatments at his private hospital in Walton” (Plath 72). Esther is pretty brave to put up with her mom’s demands and jump into therapy and then ECT so quickly, but the botched ECT only adds to her pain. I wish she had the chance to get better treatment from someone like Dr. Nolan before she attempted suicide.

Comments

  1. MitchellMarch 26, 2021 at 9:40 AM

    Esther's reticence about speaking openly with Dr. Gordon is an important factor--it is fair to point out that his ability to properly treat her condition is hindered by her unwillingness to share everything with him, even deliberately misleading and concealing certain information, assuming he'd "never understand." But she does have some good reason to believe he won't understand, and these reasons have something to do with gender (which is why Nolan is able to have much more success). We do have some evidence that he isn't listening closely to her, and that he's just moving her through the routine treatment sequence without engaging the specifics of her case. The brilliance of Nolan is that she sees that there's a social/cultural aspect to Esther's depression and sense of despair about her future, and she customizes her "treatment" accordingly.

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  2. Eliza D. TerzievApril 3, 2021 at 8:40 PM

    Generally speaking, Dr. Gordon does not seem like either A. a good fit for Esther (for a variety of reasons) and B. A very attentive physician. For example, how he told her that same story about her school twice in the span of like two meetings. What I think makes Dr. Nolan stand out is how attentive and understanding she is (as well as the fact that Esther immediately resonates with her- which to be fair Dr. Gordon had no control over). I also definitely agree that her reluctance to be honest with him played a role, but something tells me that even if she had been completely transparent their sessions wouldn't have been particularly effective (both because of the botched Electric Therapy and how much they just did not vibe).

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