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“Lord of the mirrors” and demon lover

“Lord of the mirrors” and demon lover Susan Kavaler You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you. A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two Not God but a swastika So black no sky could squeak through I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back back back to you. I thought even the bones would do... "Daddy," from Ariel, Poems by Sylvia Plath, p. 49. Order of paragraphs rearranged. There is a crucial double motive that stands out in Sylvia Plath's compul- sion to create, as it stands out in her compulsion to suicide, and to internally destroy. This double motive is inextricably tied to her love and hate for her father, and to her relationship to him as a decisively split internal object. It's the reenactment of this internal object relationship that drives Plath to the intensity of her creativity, but the object splitting involved keeps the Self split as well, forestalling forever the reparation of the self that the creative process can sometimes provide. As Butscher writes in http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Springer Journals

“Lord of the mirrors” and demon lover

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis , Volume 46 (4): 9 – Dec 1, 1986

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References (20)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
1986 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis
ISSN
0002-9548
eISSN
1573-6741
DOI
10.1007/BF01250408
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Susan Kavaler You stand at the blackboard, daddy, In the picture I have of you. A cleft in your chin instead of your foot But no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who Bit my pretty red heart in two Not God but a swastika So black no sky could squeak through I was ten when they buried you. At twenty I tried to die And get back back back to you. I thought even the bones would do... "Daddy," from Ariel, Poems by Sylvia Plath, p. 49. Order of paragraphs rearranged. There is a crucial double motive that stands out in Sylvia Plath's compul- sion to create, as it stands out in her compulsion to suicide, and to internally destroy. This double motive is inextricably tied to her love and hate for her father, and to her relationship to him as a decisively split internal object. It's the reenactment of this internal object relationship that drives Plath to the intensity of her creativity, but the object splitting involved keeps the Self split as well, forestalling forever the reparation of the self that the creative process can sometimes provide. As Butscher writes in

Journal

The American Journal of PsychoanalysisSpringer Journals

Published: Dec 1, 1986

Keywords: Clinical Psychology; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis

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