For the love of books: how readers seek therapy in reading. From the article:

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….

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..…

Some trace the origins of bibliotherapy to World War One, when fiction and non-fiction books were used to ease soldiers’ suffering and trauma. But the idea made a return in the 1990s….

While fiction bibliotherapy isn’t a substitute for other treatments, “in conjunction with other therapies, it can be a massively powerful, boosting therapy”, [physician Andrew] Schuman says. A benefit compared with other therapy types, [Elizabeth] Russell adds, is that people can do it on their own time, approaching their books when they feel emotionally ready and putting them down if they’re overwhelmed….

Such wellbeing boosts may depend on how people engage with books. In one of [psychological scientist Giulia] Poerio’s studies, she and her colleagues had 94 senior-aged people listen to audiobooks that they had selected from a list of popular fiction and non-fiction books. Remarkably, even two weeks after the programme, participants reported an improvement in their wellbeing and felt their lives to be more meaningful – but only those people who said they had engaged deeply with, and appreciated, their book. “When people were emotionally engaged with the content of the book – it was transporting them, they were feeling absorbed, it resonated with them, it had a lasting impression on them – that’s where we saw benefits to wellbeing,” Poerio says.

For related posts on books and therapy, see here.