21. A failed suicide attempt led to Plath being sent to a psychiatric hospital where she received 6 months of electroshock therapy
Down and unable to face returning to Smith College, Plath returned home. Later, she would reveal that she slashed at her legs in order to see if she had the “courage” to take her own life. Soon after, she attempted to overdose on her mother’s sleeping pills. The suicide bid failed and Plath was admitted into McLean Hospital, a specialist psychiatric institution. She spent 6 months here, with her old benefactor Olive Higgins Prouty – the writer who funded her college scholarship – picking up the bill, including for several sessions of electroshock therapy.
