(For those of you interested in my research paper about bibliotherapy, here's my preface, a rough outline, and a few excerpts.)PrefaceI first encountered the concept of “the healing power of writing" in Guy Allen's essay “Language, Power, and Consciousness: A Writing Experiment at the University of Toronto” (Allen 84). In his essay, Allen discusses how the process of writing personal essays allows his students to confront, understand, and overcome unresolved psychological and emotional damage. This concept--bibliotherapy--fascinates me. It explores how the writing process influences the writer's mental, emotional, and even physical health. In addition, it shows how the process of sharing one's writing with others not only builds a social network but also prevents writers from suppressing their feelings about unresolved conflicts and thus isolating themselves.
Bibliotherapy also interests me because I have a personal stake in the topic. I have experienced the catharsis of writing about upsetting experiences, and that discovery makes me want to write whenever an experience upsets me. Beyond my own experience, researching bibliotherapy helped me understand the distant, self-destructive behaviors of an individual I know who suffered childhood abuse; I noticed that his behavior parallels those of an individual with the mental and emotional instability that result from an unresolved traumatic experience.
While researching, I discovered case studies and anecdotes that show how the process of writing and sharing personal essays often improves the lives of the writers by allowing them to gain closure on their experiences and to connect with society. This essay focuses on bibliotherapy, specifically about how writing personal essays promotes psychological and emotional well-being, which benefits society by helping individuals become healthy, productive members. First, I examine background information about the concept of emotional literacy and how it influences psychological, emotional, and social health. Next, I examine the process of writing the personal essay—and, more importantly, the effects of that process—by referring to anecdotes and case studies from my sources. By examining the process and effects of writing the personal essay, I show how writing about a traumatic experience and then sharing it with others benefits writers by allowing them to:
- Make sense of their experience and understand how it affects them. Writing the personal essay encourages writers to address their experience, analyze and understand its effects on themselves and on others, and consciously determine how they want to react.
- Connect with other members of society and thus prevent isolation. Writers who read or listened to other personal essays identified with other writers and gained enough confidence to risk writing about experiences they otherwise did not feel comfortable writing
As part of this focus on psychological and emotional well-being, I reference case studies not only of student writers but also those of terminally-ill individuals, which shows how writing personal essays helps individuals achieve psychological and emotional stability even when they can only cope rather than heal. I apply this analysis of bibliotherapy’s effects to emphasize its importance in the classroom, which includes both bibliotherapy’s psychological, emotional, and social benefits and the writing skills it teaches.
My research is limited in that I do not address the teacher’s responsibility to weigh student confidentiality against moral and legal risks; I address bibliotherapy’s processes and effects rather than the controversy behind incorporating bibliotherapy in the classroom. This includes the elements of controversy behind teaching emotional literacy, such as the risk of exploitation, emotional instability, and inappropriateness. I plan to address these limitations in further revisions, if suggested.
Outline1. Preface
2. Emotional Literacy
2.1. Definition
2.1.1. D.H. Lawrence once explained that we "shed [our] sicknesses in books" to present and master our emotions (qtd. in Berman 291).
2.1.2. By doing so, we develop what Daniel Goldman calls “emotional literacy”. In his book Emotional Intelligence, Goldman defines emotional literacy as knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships.
2.2. Why we need emotional literacy
2.2.1. Causes of grief
2.2.2. Effects
2.2.2.1. Physical
2.2.2.2. Emotional
2.2.2.3. Risks if left unresolved
2.2.2.3.1. Lingering negative emotions
2.2.2.3.2. Learned helplessness
2.3. Why language helps build emotional literacy
2.3.1. Brain anatomy
3. Writing About a Disturbing Experience: The Process and the Effects
3.1. Writing about disturbing experiences benefits emotional and physical well-being and prompts writers to:
3.1.1. Address their experience
3.1.2. Analyze and understand its effects on them and on others
3.1.3. Empower themselves by choosing how to react to the experience.
3.2. Confronting the Experience
3.2.1. Traumatic memories
3.2.2. Social stigmas
3.2.2.1. Discussing grief
3.2.2.2. Stigmatizing topics
3.2.2.2.1. For example, in his essay “Suture, Stigma, and the Pages that Heal," Charles Anderson examines the influence of social relationships on identity by analyzing an essay by Patty McGady. In her essay, McGady addresses her experiences with drug addiction, domestic violence, and mental illness.
3.2.2.2.2. By writing about these subjects, McGady confronts the social stigmas associated with them. According to sociologist Erving Goffman, stigmas are personality traits--particularly undesirable attributes--that cause society to draw conclusions that reduce the person "from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one...especially when [the stigma's] discrediting effect is very extensive" (qtd. in Anderson 74).
3.2.2.2.3. McGady worried that the social stigmas associated with her subjects of addiction, violence, and illness would cause her readers to discredit her. Thus, these stigmas create a conflict between the need to share the experience and the need to maintain a socially acceptable reputation. But McGady noted that even though she resisted writing about these experiences because she found them painful and difficult, she still felt the need to write about them every time she started writing.
3.2.2.2.4. McGady resolves this conflict by addressing her stigmatizing traits but then focusing on the socially acceptable discourse of therapy. After writing and revising the essay, she discovered that the process of writing it helped her regain control over her life, which is what Anderson calls the discovery of "a subjectivity capable of healing itself by ordering, transforming, and finally overcoming stigma" (Anderson 77).
3.3. Understanding the Experience's Effects
3.3.1. Constructing a clear, coherent story
3.3.2. Exploring thinking processes and identity
3.4. Empowering the Writer
3.4.1. Control
3.4.2. Release emotional inhibition
3.5. Mental, Emotional and Physical Effects
4. Sharing the Experience
4.1. Allows writers to connect with other members of society and thus prevent isolation. Writers who read or listened to other personal essays (1) identified with other writers and (2) gained enough confidence to risk writing about experiences they otherwise did not feel comfortable writing.
4.2. Effects of Hearing From Others
4.2.1. Gives individual confidence to risk writing about more personal experiences
4.2.2. Triggers empathy
4.3. Effects of Sharing Personal Experiences
4.3.1. Allows individual to connect with others, thus fulfilling the need for social interaction
4.3.2. Teaches others
4.3.3. Increases sense of self-esteem and confidence
5. Potential Use of Personal Essays in the Classroom
5.1. Health benefits
5.1.1. Psychological
5.1.2. Emotional
5.1.3. Physical
5.2. Literary skills
5.2.1. Engages students
5.2.2. Strengthens writing skills
5.2.3. Encourages students to draw connections with texts and with real-life contexts
Excerpts from my paper:- "Writing and sharing diary entries about their experiences with suicide, for example, made Berman's students romanticize suicide in literature less than students in classes who did not write and share diary entries (Berman 309)."
- "Any event that threatens a person's perceived self-identity and world view can cause grief (Bosticco and Thompson 257)."
- "Grief's effect on the individual's emotions include distancing from others and an uncontrollable need to cry, and emotions themselves include anger, loneliness, feelings of abandonment, fear, guilt, and disbelief (Bosticco and Thompson 256). Individuals who do not resolve feelings of helplessness can develop 'learned helplessness' in which the individual assumes helplessness in situations where he or she can exercise control, which leads to anxiety and depression (Bosticco and Thompson 268)."
- "Bosticco and Thompson explain that any event that challenges our [social] attachment ties causes anxious behavior aimed to restore 'the desired relationship,' and that this reaction 'assumes that the object of attachment can be reclaimed.' When the loss is permanent, the individual experiences 'acute grief' (Bosticco and Thompson 255-256)."
- "The American culture often stigmatizes those who breach the subject of grief, which many Americans consider 'insensitive and self-centered' (Bosticco and Thompson 258). As a result, suffering individuals censure discussing their emotions. This aspect of our culture worsens the problem by encourging emotional inhibition."
- "Certain characteristics of loss make it harder for individuals to cope, such as suddenness, long illness, and violence (Bosticco and Thompson 262)."
- "Psychologists David Watson and Lee Anna Clark found emotional inhibition to stress the inhibited individuals and thus increases their probability of illness (Nye 395)."
- "Pennebaker and his team studied how writing about emotional experiences helps people improve their physical and mental health. Their study, along with others, linked writing to a reduced number of doctor visits, 'positive effects on blood markers of immune function,' reduced pain and medication use among arthritis sufferers, improvements in asthmatics’ lung function markers, and lower levels of depression in students taking exams (Pennebaker 5). In addition, the benefits of writing span across a variety of groups, social classes, and racial/ethnic groups across the world. Pennebaker states that the studies done over the past decade strongly suggest 'significant, positive, consistent, and identifiable relationships between writing and speaking about difficult or emotional experiences and physical health' (Pennebaker 7)."
ReferencesAllen, Guy. “Language, Power, and Consciousness: A Writing Experiment at the University of Toronto.” Teaching Composition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. 65-98. Print.
Anderson, Charles M., Karen Holt, and Patty McGady. “Suture, Stigma, and the Pages that Heal.” Anderson 58-82.
Berman, Jeffrey, and Jonathan Schiff. “Writing about Suicide.” Anderson 291-312.
Bosticco, Cecilia, and Teresa Thompson, Teresa. “The Role of Communication and Story Telling in the Family Grieving System.” Journal of Family Communication. 5.4 (2005). 255-278. Print.
Nye, Emily. “‘The More I Tell My Story’: Writing as Healing in an HIV/AIDS Community.” Anderson 385-415.
Pennebaker, James W. “Telling Stories: The Health Benefits of Narrative.” Literature and Medicine 19.1 (2000): 3-18. Web. 25 October 2010.
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