‘It opened up something in me’: Why people are turning to bibliotherapy
By Katya Zimmer
“Bibliotherapy” has been soaring in popularity as a means of improving people’s wellbeing. But getting it right depends on the book, and the person.
In the summer of 2017, Elizabeth Russell was going through a rough patch. It was during a difficult divorce, involving her two young teenagers, while she was still in the throes of a long-term depression. “It was just a really, really stressful time,” recalls Russell, a teacher and librarian at an elementary school in Connecticut, US.
But then on the internet she came across something called “creative bibliotherapy”, where a tailored recommendation of fiction is offered with the aim of improving mental health. The name Ella Berthoud, a bibliotherapist based in Sussex, UK, who co-wrote the book The Novel Cure about such literary remedies, kept popping up. Russell – an avid reader – immediately wanted to try it out.
After quizzing Russell on her reading habits and interviewing her about her challenges, Berthoud sent her a list of book recommendations relevant to her life, many featuring characters navigating tough marital decisions, like George and Lizzie by Nancy Pearl. “I just was blown away,” Russell recalls. Learning from the lessons and mistakes of fictional characters helped her process what she was going through and made her feel less alone. “It opened up something in me that needed to be opened and needed to heal,” she says.
In the UK and elsewhere, bibliotherapy – which also includes recommendations for non-fiction and self-help literature – has been soaring in popularity as a means of improving people’s wellbeing, help navigate tough life decisions, and even to treat specific mental health conditions. (Read the BBC’s book recommendations on homesickness and resilience.)
While the benefits of self-help literature are well documented, advocates of fiction-based or “creative bibliotherapy” claim similar advantages. They argue that immersing oneself in rich, simulated worlds – often reflective of real-life experiences – can help readers process emotions, discover coping strategies, or simply provide momentary escape from their everyday woes.
As two researchers wrote in a 2016 paper in The Lancet, immersion in great literature can “help relieve, restore, and reinvigorate the troubled mind – and can play a part in relieving stress and anxiety, as well as other troubled states of mind”. Considering the shortage of affordable mental health services in many countries, the idea that fiction can offer support is appealing.
