The idea that storytelling has a therapeutic effect on people’s mind dates back to the fifth century B.C., when Aristotle elaborated the concept of catharsis in his Poetics. The Greek philosopher believed that people could benefit from the emotions of piety and terror that the tragedy aroused in them through the identification with the character: by experiencing them from a “safe” position, that of the spectator, they purified their minds from the same feelings.
What is bibliotherapy?
Bibliotherapy is a method that consists in using books as therapeutic tools for different aims, such as helping people who suffer from mental disorders, developing self-knowledge in adults and adolescents and empowering their personal skills and psychological resources.
Even if the positive effect of narratives has a long tradition, the first concrete application of bibliotherapy occurred in 1930, when the psychiatrist William Menninger decided to prescribe books to war veterans affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. From that moment, bibliotherapy has been studied by several researchers from all over the world, acquiring even greater credibility and leading to remarkable discoveries.
Types of administrations
Bibliotherapy concerns both the medical and the educational field. In the first case, it’s combined with a therapy led by a healthcare worker to treat a psychophysical disorder. In the second one, it’s used to improve the people’s quality of life – be they children, students, adults or elderly – and it’s managed by book operators such as teachers, librarians, educators and socio-cultural workers.
Is there evidence of its validity?
Several international scientific studies show that reading and storytelling in general have positive effects on subjects suffering from depression and anxiety disorders and are effective in the treatment of dyslexia, autism and neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer. Furthermore, they improve creativity, increase emotional intelligence and have positive effects on the mood, thanks to the stimulation of neurochemical transmitters such as oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins.
Two sides of the same coin: the reader and the writer
According to the American scholar Caroline Shrodes, bibliotherapy deals with identification, made possible by mind reading and empathy – two fundamental cognitive functions in human beings – catharsis and introspection. Introspection allows one to acquire a deeper knowledge of the Self, particularly important for adolescents that are building their identity through social relationships and comparisons with peers. Not only reading, but also writing – especially autobiographical – has this inner power of disinterment of inner emotions, often unconscious.
Heal yourself with books today
Nowadays bibliotherapy is particularly promoted in England, through the national project Books on Prescription. It consists in the prescription of books by health workers to treat mental disorders; the patient goes to the nearest local library with his “recipe” and gets the book the doctor prescribed them. These “healthy” books are selected from a list recommended by The Reading Agency, a non profit association, within the program Reading Well. These therapeutic books belong to different genres, from documentary to young adults and picture books like Ruby has a worry by Tom Percival. All of them are previously approved by the main British healthcare associations and by the Department of Health.
Moreover, in the last decade many books on this topic have seen the light, one for all The Novel Cure: an A to Z of Literary Remedies (2013) by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin, which catalogues a variety of literary works according to their therapeutic effect. “Living without literature means losing the opportunity to live enriched by the lessons of those who have gone through this life before us,” write the authors in the preface.
What’s next?
The European partnership working on the Breaking Taboos’ project seeks to dismantle stereotypes and taboos on mental health that stigmatise and isolate people facing mental health disorders. To raise awareness amongst teenagers and to accompany the young people dealing with those troubles, we are developing five interactive comic books on the theme of “Changing your viewpoint on…” (anxiety, depression, disabilities, and so on) Through a series ofworkshops held in each of the partner countries, young people will be able to read the booksbut also to become the creators and designers of their own stories, applying bibliotherapy on their personal backgrounds and issues, in the aim to address this topic through a more cathartic approach.
To learn more about the Breaking Taboos about mental health’s project, click here
