Analysis Postcard

���Abyss (from The Emily Dickinson Series).��� Janet Malcolm, 2013.

Emily Dickinson, arguably one of America���s foremost poets, is characterized by critics as able to capture extreme emotional states in her greatest work. Recent dating of her poems offers the periodicity of her writing as a behavior that can be examined for patterns of affective illness that may relate to these states. The bulk of Dickinson���s work was written during a clearly defined 8-year period when she was age 28���35. Poems written during that period, 1858���1865, were grouped by year and examined for annual and seasonal distribution. Her 8-year period of productivity was marked by two 4-year phases. The first shows a seasonal pattern characterized by greater creative output in spring and summer and a lesser output during the fall and winter. This pattern was interrupted by an emotional crisis that marked the beginning of the second phase, a 4-year sustained period of greatly heightened productivity and the emergence of a revolutionary poetic style. These data, supported by excerpts from letters to friends during this period of Dickinson���s life, demonstrate seasonal changes in mood during the first four years of major productivity, followed by a sustained elevation of creative energy, mood, and cognition during the second. They suggest, as supported by family history, a bipolar pattern previously described in creative artists.

Sincerely,

John F. McDermott M.D.

���Crater (from The Emily Dickinson Series).����� Janet Malcolm, 2013.

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