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Emily Dickinson: The Interweaving of Poetry and Personality. Simon A. Grolnick. Pp. 111-131.
Grolnick's thesis is that "Dickinson's poetic images and themes and her 'lived life' were inextricably interwoven." He uses the concepts of Winnicott to explore Dickinson's life and work. Citing examples of Dickinson's poetry, he finds it is used as "transitional language" and for fetishistic purposes. He discusses biographical data and Dickinson's two favorite images, "bee" and "plank," to illustrate his points. Grolnick raises the intriguing question: for a precocious child (such as Dickinson), would an otherwise good-enough mother become equivalent to a narcissistic mother?