Bibliotherapy
January 15, 2008 by hesperuspress
A slightly belated response to an article which caught my eye recently in The Guardian: Blake Morrison reported on the charity Get Into Reading, which operates under the premise that reading, studying and discussing great works of literature can have healing effects on those suffering from physical, emotional or mental illness.
I would imagine that most visitors to this blog have found themselves, at some point, succoured and soothed by great writing. The most appealing thing about this charity is that it doesn’t employ self-help books, or even necessarily books geared to psychoanalytical introspection — rather the opposite, it relies on the enormous power of great literature in itself to lift and transport. I couldn’t agree more.
This charity currently only operates in the Wirral, but I would love to see it expand to become a nationwide initiative. I can’t think that they’d be short of volunteers after such an article.
Ellie
I’m always a bit worried about the art as comfort blanket thing. Sometimes books help me, but sometimes walking the dogs, listening to music, or downing one to many fine ales does the job …
But if these guys are finding that literature can help people shake of their Black Dog, then more power to their elbow…
Ahh, the Wirral — land of placcies (real Liverpudlians think of them as plastic scousers!)