History of Bibliotherapy
With sources as various as there are books available, the common consensus on the history of bibliotherapy is that the term itself was coined in 1916 by American minister, Samuel Crothers. He defined the term as, “the art of using books to aid people in solving the issues they are facing.” However, Crothers was far from the first to advocate the healing power of books. King Ramses II of Egypt had a special chamber built for his books and over the door he had inscribed, “House of Healing for the Soul.”
As for the concept of bibliotherapy and the original pairing of the two words, this has widely been attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who considered literature had healing benefits, and that reading fiction was a way of treating illness. In this manner, bibliotherapy was taken up by medical professionals such as Anna and Sigmund Freud in the early 19th century, and nearing the end of World War I libraries became established in many veteran hospitals and act of bibliotherapy was prescribed to treat military veterans suffering emotional trauma.
To perpetuate a love of books and storytelling, Biblio-Therapy offers private individual sessions and the curation of personal library collections, for readers of all ages.
The practice of bibliotherapy was further expanded upon in the 1950s when Carolyn Shrodes, author of The Conscious Reader noted that characters in stories can be hugely influential to those readers that identify with them. Fast forward to the early 21st century when in 2007 British philosopher Alain de Botton co-founded the School of Life in London and included bibliotherapy as a service, with the aim of developing emotional intelligence through culture.
In 2009, research conducted by cognitive neuropsychologist Dr. David Lewis indicated evidence that reading is indeed good for you. In fact, the research Dr. Lewis conducted illustrated that reading works better and faster than other relaxation methods to reduce stress levels. Reading silently for six minutes reduced stress by 68 percent. This was higher than listening to music, which indicated a 61% reduction in stress levels or 54% when having a cup of tea or 42% when going for a walk.
Psychologists attribute the benefits of reading to the fact that the mind has to concentrate on reading, so it becomes distracted and eases the tensions around the heart and muscles. However, reading is more than a mere distraction. Reading actively engages the imagination, which causes you to enter what is psychologists describe as an altered state of consciousness. To this end, numerous studies are beginning to show corollary links between reading fiction and developing empathy.