Final Draft

Who needs a therapist when you have novels?

The most commonly prescribed substances are medications, but the most surprising prescription to date would be that of a novel. Bibliotherapy, is when an individual is paired with a licensed bibliotherapist and given a novel that reflects their set of issues. The patients goes through a questionnaire with their therapist, questions revolving around their reading habits and things that may be preoccupying their thoughts. Through sessions of therapy and insight on the traumas and fears these individuals may be facing, the therapist prescribes them a list of readings.  The books are used as a form of escapism, a spiritual pillar, the beginning to a new life. The pages are gates to a new life for certain individuals, giving them a new place to call home for just a few moments. There is a significant importance to this subject, literature has shown up time and time again as a creative outlet a means to bring solace, novels becoming guide books to help persons climb over the emotional hurdles life tend to throw in the course of our lives. 

This type of therapy is unknown to many, unaware that these books are more than just light readings to pass the time on your train ride to work or school. These novels that individuals may be reading become their outlet, their own personal paradise. They read, take notes, journal the thoughts and feelings that certain passages may make them feel and later discuss with their therapist. The characters in the stories become their navigators, helping them whether the storm. Bibliotherapy calmes your sensory overload, bringing your crashing waves of intrusive thoughts at bay and to calming waters. 

The history of this therapy begins its journey towards the end of the first world war. According to Liz Brewster, author of ‘Bibliotherapy’ introduces the resource that began as a “literary clinic.” The writers take us back in history, not only would soldiers be coming back with physical wounds they would also come back home with deeply rooted psychological wounds as well. Flashbacks of their time spent at battle and experiencing your comrades being killed in front of you. At pivotal moments the soldiers minds begin to resemble the trenches where they would lay, dark, cramped up, and filled with beings that do not belong there in the first place. Brewer states that “war neurosis” affected a significant amount of individuals who had come back from World War one between the years of 1914 to 1918. The number of soldiers who experienced shell shock have never been accurately identified. Although the soldiers that did seek psychological help did allow for mental health issues to be addressed and for new approaches to be founded. The soldiers that had been admitted to a ward for shell shock or had just been seeing an occupational therapist on their own, had been introduced to bibliotherapy as a form to reintroduce the soldiers to daily life scenarios. To allow this effort to happen libraries became the leading role. Various books that would either introduce new skills or would give the soldiers a reality to escape to and a place that would allow them to process their emotions. Psychiatry and the various historical milestones it has gone through since the discovery of it, to the various positions that it holds today reflects the growth of society. Brewster reflects this position, she states the every changing definition of bibliotherapy has to do with the, “changing attitudes and approaches to mental health treatment, and with the evolving role of the hospital and public libraries” (Brewster,3).

The developmental aspect of bibliotherapy does not stop at the world wars, one of the main reasons this therapy began to appear more significant was due to psychologist Alice Bryan, who in 1939, posed the question: ‘can there be science of bibliotherapy?’ (Brewer 6). The main goal and purpose to this was question was followed by six significant objectives the a patient would got through before selecting a reading to work with. The objectives are of such ideas, identification, identifying what is hiding the individual back; motivation, this is the want to achieve a better life and get better; personal values; what is their specific set of values, what do they deem important; and experience, their past and present experience with therapies and their traumas.These pillars of objectives would help the patient and the doctor be more aware and understanding of the problems at large. 

Therapy with literature began to see a resurgence and an ultimate peak during the 1960s through the 1970s. This type of medical aide began to see an increasing number of academic journals and article being published around this topic (Brewer 7). In the early use of bibliotherapy, fiction books were predominantly the literature of choice as the ‘make believe’ worlds that had been created in the novels would encourage the readers to have a more imaginative and positive outlook on life. Psychiatrist at many asylums in the 60s and 70s, encouraged reading to those who did not suffer from any mental issues, as they strongly believed literature gave the ability to maintain good mental health (Brewer 7). 

The concept of death is difficult for everyone to comprehend and grasp, even for those who are a whole lot older, so imagine yourself as a child trying to cope and understand the concept of death. The emotional baggage that carries itself to the result of death is one that is predominately life changing, a moment in an individuals life that will shape them. There are times when traumatic moments happen to individuals, many are able to move past them, to get to the other side without need any particular guidance, but then, there are some who fall into the gripes of the darkness and have a hard time crawling there way out of the dark hole that continues to pull them in. Children and adolescents tend to channel their grief in different ways opposed to older individuals. Slyter, author of ‘grief and adolescent development’ states that teenagers tend to take the grief in a more personal nature, meaning the feelings are far more intense (Slyter 18).  The author furthermore explains the point that the death of a loved one and the feelings attached to the loss may directly impact their life forever, even after they move from the death (Slyter 18). Case studies in Brewers article exemplify the power novels hold for individuals who are grieving. Grief is not the only topic bibliotherapy helps children with, children who have past issues of trauma or abuse are routed to biblio-therapists. Andrea Karlin, author of ‘Child abuse: helping children through bibliotherapy’, states “literature develops empathy by helping the reader relate more fully to this human condition” (Karlin 6). 

The novels chosen by the therapist involved regard the child’s fears, helping them push past their traumas and to overcome what has happened to them. Day after day of abuse and belittlement. Oftentimes children who are victims of abuse, find comfort in outdoor environments, to people or places. Or, there are many who reach for books allowing their imagination to whisk them away to a place where they may not experience any harms. That is the power of bibliotherapy, conveying knowledge and power to tiny individuals who need it the most. Story lines that take the children on adventures and who give them comfort, and humour to make them feel less alone in their big world. The power of fiction novels allows an individual to see themselves in a different scenario, another lifetime almost, but still having the power to be uniquely themselves in that moment. 

Based on the concepts discussed, how novels can help people overcome past traumas and psychological terrors, that is the power of great literature. Bibliotherapy does not just exist on its own, the help of licensed psychologists helping and allowing the patients to navigate themselves through the books and their lives go hand in hand. The novels prescribed, given to these individuals as a list gives them something to accomplish and check off their to do list. The power of a good novel helps anyone, no matter how it was recommended to you, if your friend begged you to read or if your therapist suggested the read because you might find similarities with the plot; literature is the glue that helps put the cracks back together. That is the power of a good book, the ability for it to heal you.