The Medical Gaze in Psychiatric Treatment: Women Doctors and Nurses in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted

Authors

  • Ramona Schmidt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.265

Keywords:

Medical Gaze, Psychiatric treatment, Bell Jar, Girl Interrupted

Abstract

This essay focusses on the forms of psychiatric treatment the protagonists undergo by women doctors and nurses in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted. The theoretical basis for this comparative analysis is provided by Michel Foucault’s concept of the ‘medical gaze.’ The different degrees to which this medical gaze is applied by male and female psychiatric staff ultimately have a strong impact on the female patients’ recovery in both narratives. 

Downloads

Published

2017-05-26

How to Cite

Schmidt, Ramona. “The Medical Gaze in Psychiatric Treatment: Women Doctors and Nurses in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, May 2017, doi:10.5283/copas.265.

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 2 (2016): Women and Medicine in American Literature and Culture

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.