Reply #79: such is the beauty of DU

[tigereye]

or any board, I suppose. ALthough it may be Swag, he seems to be talented at allowing discussion to develop!

I had a friend/colleague who was a grad student who studied a certain type of psychology that had a very strong post-modern and philosophical sensibility. He and others in his program were wont to analyze poetry and other forms of art in the way that you describe, i.e., I can picture him telling me that Sylvia Plath's poetry was simply an expression of her symptoms (although ironically I understand that she was encouraged to write poetry by one of her doctors.) But for me, her poetry was so much much more than that and that is why the pre-deconstructionist-era English Lit major in me always cringes at that kind of analysis or Lit Crit of other poets and writers, regardless of how common that view is in English departments these last few decades.

oddly enough, I have read that Monk actually did have conservatory training, I think. That dissertation sounds fascinating.