Bibliotherapy: Reading for well-being and healing
First of two parts
The days I spent reading Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were my happiest.
Curled up on the green sofa in my father’s study, forgetting where I was and who I was—absorbed in a world of dramatic stories and exciting settings, rich characters and intricate plots—I wished I could linger a little longer in the villages of Russia, instead of returning to the life of an ordinary student in an ordinary city, going to an ordinary school that required wearing an ordinary blue-and-white uniform and, at home, getting things ready to do that ordinary task of writing answers to a boring assignment.
Different books mesmerized me at different stages of my life: Books by Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Hardy, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. These authors were my “classical friends” while James Michener, Boris Pasternak, Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger and Leon Uris were my “newer friends.”
My love for books, I think, was the only reason why I was recognized for my abilities to speak and write good English, more than any textbook in school. I spent more time with my books—traveling to exotic places and meeting strange characters—than chatting with my classmates in school or by telephone.
It was bibliotherapy on my own, although I did not know the word when I was young. To really enjoy reading novels, however, one has to maintain a carefree spirit and a calm mind, the ability to read slowly—not rushing to go somewhere or to do some other business or to be with someone.
These luxuries are no longer a given these days. One has to choose to protect them over a faster, fragmented, screen-based default lifestyle.
Teachers cannot overemphasize the importance of reading to their students; more so, to themselves. Reading widens your world; exposes you to people, cultures and perspectives; sharpens your thinking; increases your vocabulary; improves your writing; and, ultimately, enables deeper learning.
There are no arguments that reading brings numerous cognitive benefits.
But do you know that reading can also be therapeutic in that it leads to healing and well-being?
Reading is not something passive or merely reactive. It is interactive, a transactional process between the reader and the text.
During the reading process, the reader gets emotionally involved with the characters, feeling their feelings and approving or disapproving their actions. Readers connect with the characters’ experiences while evaluating their own, in the light of the story as it unfolds.
By identifying or de-identifying with the characters, readers may release their own emotions through catharsis, at the same time gaining new perspective about life or a problem in life.
Bibliotherapy is selecting and reading books as a healing process or just everyday well-being. It can be cognitive or affective or both.
In cognitive bibliotherapy, fiction or nonfiction (could be inspirational or how-to) books may be used: Books that speak directly to the problem with the goal to effect cognitive-behavioral changes.
Affective bibliotherapy, on the other hand, uses fiction only—books with characters that may have experiences far removed from our own, such that readers may connect their feelings, pain or self-repressed thoughts in a less threatening way.
While cognitive bibliotherapy works for some, it is affective bibliotherapy that has been found to be more effective.
Take the case of the “Harry Potter” books. An article by Loris Vezzali et al., published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology (February 2015) concludes that reading “Harry Potter” books improved the readers’ attitude toward stigmatized groups that included immigrants, homosexuals and refugees.
Aptly titled “The Greatest Magic of Harry Potter: Reducing Prejudice,” the article explained that identifying with Harry Potter (the positive character) and de-identification with Voldemort (the negative character) developed empathy among elementary and high school student samples from United Kingdom and Italy.
Grace Shangkuan Koo, PhD. teaches a graduate course in Affective Learning at the University of the Philippines. E-mail her at [email protected].
