Did you know? Bibliotherapy – or ‘book therapy’ – is an ancient practice. The notion that reading can help to alleviate distress and anxiety was articulated as early as the 5th century BCE, by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, who wrote that ‘words are the physician of the mind diseased’.
Modern clinical definitions of bibliotherapy sometimes emphasise the importance of selecting the right text for the right person, and may outline a three-stage therapeutic process:
Identification with a text or characters in a text
Catharsis or release of emotion in response to a text
Insight into the problems presented in the text, and how these might be relevant to the reader’s own situation.