runaway inflation and worthless money.nBut until that happens, the real irresponsibilitynand almost certain bankruptcynare shielded behind the flood ofndollars.nMr. Simon declares that his greatestnconcern is with the loss of individualnfreedom and the economic despotismnthat now prevails in the United States.nHe pulls no punches in describing thenimpact on the ubiquitous regulationsnand bureaucratic controls by which theynare enforced. He shows the least insightnin grasping how entangled businessesnare with government. The economicndespotism of which he speaks is notnCommendablesnPoetry, Society, Human SelfnDavid Holbrook: Sylvia Plath: Poetrynand Existence; The Athlone Press;nLondon; Humanities Press; Atlantic Highlands,nNew Jersey.nby Gordon M. PradlnIn ofi^ering a psychoanalytical-literaryncritical analysis of Sylvia Plath’s work,none that depends heavily on “”objectrelations”ntheory, David Holbrook, annEnglish writer and educator, necessarilynextends the conventional boundaries ofnour responses to literature.n””From this brief digression intonthe realms where poetry and philosophy—andnpsychology—mergenand meet, it will be evident thatnfor my purposes I cannot restrictnmyself to a mere literary analysis.nWe cannot solve the problemsnwhich arise from even a singlenphrase (“masturbating a glitter,’nfor example) without moving beyondnthe words into the realms ofninvestigative psychology, and thisnDr. Pradl is an Associate Professor ofnEnglish Education at the Departmentnof Communication Arts and Sciences,nNew York University.nsimply government despotism overnbusiness. Many businesses share in thendespotic controls by acting as instrumentsnof government in extending politicalnpower over the individual.n1 n any case, Mr. Simon has made annarticulate presentation of the ills whichnbeset us as a people and an eloquentnplea for reducing and restraining governmentnby restoring individual liberty.nIt took courage to write such a book. Itnwill take great tenacity by many peoplento restore the identity of Americansnwith their country by following his recommendations.n[]]nwill mean, in some spheres, conjecturing,nabout the life … I believenthat we cannot understandnher poetry well, and at times notnat all, unless we recognize that shenhas a topography of her own,nwhich is that of the world as thenschizoid individual sees it.”nThis wider context which Holbrooknchooses for his analysis of Plath’s creationsngrows out of Holbrook’s pressingnconcern over the state of contemporarynculture. He sees much of the social environmentnas working against ournnatural inclinations. The reader in turnnmust be made aware of Plath’s relationshipnto these forces.n””We must defend ourselves againstnher falsifications, especially whennthey are the object of cults, in annatmosphere in which we are beingnurged to cultivate our psychosesnand endorse decadence and moralninversion . . . One of the slogansnof the German Baader-Meinhofnterrorist gang was “24 hours ofnHATE each day’: and we haventhis kind of moral inversion in culturenas well as politics.”nnnIn demonstrating how Sylvia Plathnenacts in her work the anguished crynfor help of an extreme schizoid personalitynwho yearns for ‘”being” and rebirthnin the frozen blankness of nonrelationshipnand, ultimately, death,nHolbrook is arguing that any adequatenreading must take into considerationnboth the real and the false solutions inna work as they impinge on the centralnquestion of what it means to be human.nWhat position we finally choose to emphasizenreflects our own values out intonthe world, but Holbrook trusts that ourncreative nature will strive toward whatnmakes for life, not toward what worksnagainst it. With this in mind Holbrooknattempts a balanced perspective towardnSylvia Plath’s achievement.n””Sylvia Plath tells us that thenworld is full of hate: this may benvaluable. But where she suggestsnthat this hate can get out of handnand cannot be dealt with by ournown efforts within ourselves, she isnpromoting irrationality and para-nOne legitimately wonders, however,nif Holbrook, for all his earnestness,nhasn’t lost sight of the poems themselves.nFor clearly the knowledge wenare seeking to exploit in the teachingnof English is something other thannpsychology. The solution to this problem,nhowever, resides in the directionnof time, as Holbrook is well awarenwhen he refers to Rollo May:n””Being, as May says, should meannpotentia—the potentiality of whatnwe truly might be. The significantntense for human beings is the future—fornthis belongs to intentionality.nSylvia Plath’s existential confusionnis that what she took tonpoint forward in this way actuallynpointed to the termination of beingnand potentiality.”nIn reaching for power (which isnreally character, morally earned) withnour students in English, in developingntheir capacities for self-making andn19nChronicles of Cultnren