The Null Device

2001/7/26

Poetry by suicidal poets contains telltale signs of suicidal tendencies, in the form of linguistic patterns. Researchers in the US applied computer analysis techniques to poetry by poets who took their own lives, including Sylvia Plath, as well as a control group of non-suicidal poets, and determined that the suicidal poets used many more singular first-person references, and fewer words associated with interpersonal communication, thus suggesting detachment and self-absorption. Surprisingly, emotional words such as "love" and "hate" did not vary significantly between the two words.

depression introspection language psychology suicide 0

Alexander Abian, thou art vindicated: John "Lisp" McCarthy advocates reorbiting Mars to make it a born-again Earth. (ta, Mitch!)

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