Brief Overview Of Literature Therapy

Its Nature

The use of literature as a therapeutic technique is known as literary therapy (or bibliotherapy).

What It Does

Reading fosters empathy and increases social awareness, which alters our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We get engaged with the narrative and acquire understanding when we can relate to or identify with a character or circumstance. insight that results in transformation.

The Advantages

Reading may help you relax physically, divert your attention from worrying, lift your spirits, and sharpen your mind and memory. Reading also enables you to gain perspective, honesty, understanding, and compassion for others and oneself.

 

Finding Out From Others

We are only able to learn from our own experiences and those of people closest to us in our own lives. Even with them being so broad, there is still so much more of the world outside of us to explore, so many people we haven't met, and so many other emotions we haven't yet felt.

What is the most traditional tale—the oldest tale ever told?

the struggle of good against evil. The quest of the hero. the vanquishing of a bad guy.

But what if you're not sure who the villain is?

Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer pulls us into a tale that deals with this very problem. Taylor uses a variety of narrators to take us inside the heads of two unlikely heroes who are both indoctrinated to see the other as their biggest danger.

The plot is engaging, there is a compelling moral argument, and there is no lack of action, but does it have more to offer?

A change in viewpoint is one of the desired results in the area of bibliotherapy, which is the practice of offering therapeutic assistance via reading.

We've all had the experience that tales can transport us. They present to us the future and distant places that we will never see. Both the conceivable and the impossibility are shown. Perhaps the chance to go on exciting experiences without ever leaving our beds is what we enjoy most about reading.

But it's not limited to that.

Additionally, reading puts us in situations and elicits feelings we may not have before felt. We get a variety of viewpoints by reading.

Sometimes we attempt to apply simplistic tales of good vs evil to reality because we are used to them. However, the fact is that there aren't always good guys and evil guys. The human race is more nuanced than that. Two sides with opposing viewpoints may sometimes simply be two sides with opposing viewpoints. It's not always clear who the bad guy is. Additionally, there isn't always a righteous person.

By giving us the different points of view from both sides, Strange the Dreamer questions our perceptions of who is the hero and who is the villain.

We are only able to learn from our own experiences and those of people closest to us in our own lives. Even with them being so broad, there is still so much more of the world outside of us to explore, so many people we haven't met, and so many other emotions we haven't yet felt. We may not even be aware of our own limits without the valuable experiences reading provides.

 

A Guide To Book Selection For Literature Therapy

The choice of books is a very customized procedure because of the nature of literary therapy. The ideal scenario is when the reader's issue is comparable to one that the book's characters are facing. The fact that the character conveys their feelings in a manner that the reader can identify with is the component of this that is more crucial. The intended outcome of this connection with the character is for the reader to have a new or improved knowledge of their own sentiments or those of others.

Because of this, choosing a book may be quite challenging, particularly when working as a group. The intended result of a reading group is for participants to learn how to identify their own feelings in the characters' and learn how to manage their own emotions, even if the book being read does not particularly connect to them.

The following recommendations for choosing a book may be found in Bibliotherapy for Youth and Adolescents: School-Based Application and Research by McCulliss and Chamberlain:

1. Exciting and inspiring situations

2. Age, skill, and maturity compatibility

3. Obtains a reaction

4. Variety of literary forms

5. Using words appropriately

6. Increases awareness of variety

7. Increases sensitivity and comprehension

When determining if a book was a good choice, the following inquiries were proposed by the same research:

• Is the narrative straightforward, unambiguous, succinct, original, and plausible?
• Is the reading and developmental level appropriate?
• Does the tale align with the appropriate goals, objectives, and interests?
• Does it exhibit sensitivity to aggressiveness, gender inclusion, and cultural diversity?
• Do characters exhibit coping mechanisms, and does the issue exhibit a solution?

Most crucial, the reader has to have a connection to the book's characters or plot. We have the capacity to see ourselves in one another because we are human. We must master this ability if we want to use literary therapy effectively. Reading a book is never a waste of time, even if it doesn't always transform your life.