[The "price" of creativity? Predictive and protective factors in the suicide of Sylvia Plath].

An increasing number of studies deal with the potential correspondence between suicidal behaviour and creativity nowadays. Psychobiographical analysis of the life of well known artists may help the better understanding of this phenomenon. In the present study predictive and protective factors of suicide are presented through the case of the well known suicidal poet and writer, Sylvia Plath. The most important predictive factors of suicide in her case are: affective disorder, comorbid anxiety disorder, prior attempt of suicide, and also her seriously affected personality, that mainly appears in her affective dependence. Her life events, both causes and effects of these, are also predisposing suicide. The early loss of her father, ambivalent relation with her mother and her marriage foredoomed to failure are the most significant of them. Although she used to write since her early childhood, the constant fluctuation of her psychological state had serious effect on her ability to write and also her motivation, both being an additional source of stress, due to her performance pressure. The fear of the acceptance of her works could also lay to increased amount of stress and anxiety on her sensitive personality. Her tragical life events, her psychiatric illness and her relentless templets towards herself could cause such a pressing stress, that neither creation, nor motherhood (the most important protective factor for women) could predominate. Neither moving to England, nor her last confessional book, "The Bell Jar" could cure her many kind of wounds, and these factors together lead to the suicide.