Self-Focus Signals Inner Turmoil

Analyzing poetry can reveal psychological states, as seen in the contrast between poets who died by suicide and those who did not. The use of pronouns, particularly 'I' words, increases significantly in the writings of poets experiencing depression. In Hellyer's poetry, an alarming shift occurred, with his 'I' word usage rising from about 1% to between 8% and 10% in the final works, indicating a deepening self-focus and suggesting a correlation between this linguistic change and his mental state over time.