{"id":66882,"date":"2023-01-23T00:09:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T05:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=66882"},"modified":"2023-01-23T00:09:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T05:09:05","slug":"can-reading-help-heal-us-and-process-our-emotions-or-is-that-just-a-story-we-tell-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/can-reading-help-heal-us-and-process-our-emotions-or-is-that-just-a-story-we-tell-ourselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Can reading help heal us and process our emotions \u2013 or is that just a story we tell ourselves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe\u00a0oldest known library<\/a>, dating back to the second millennium BC, in Thebes, Egypt, reportedly bore a sign above its portals in Greek:\u00a0Psyches Iatreion<\/em>, translated as \u201chealing place of the soul\u201d.<\/p>\n

The idea that reading may confer healing benefits is not new, but continues to intrigue readers and researchers.<\/p>\n

Of course, this doesn\u2019t apply to reading about how to put up the tent, or tidy our piles of household stuff. When we talk about books that might offer a balm for the soul, we mean fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction (including memoir).<\/p>\n

The idea of emotional catharsis through reading is intuitively appealing. But does it work that way? Or do we read for interest, pleasure, escapism \u2013 or love of words?<\/p>\n

Reading as catharsis and transport<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cThe highest aspiration of art is to move the audience,\u201d claims\u00a0George Saunders<\/a>. Who is not still moved by the first book that affected them on a cellular level \u2013 whether that\u2019s Storm Boy, The Little Prince, or their high-school reading of To Kill a Mockingbird?<\/p>\n

According to the authors of\u00a0The Novel Cure: an A-Z of Literary Remedies<\/a>,
\nnovels have the power to transport you into another existence, and see the world from a different point of view [\u2026] sometimes it\u2019s the story that charms; sometimes it\u2019s the rhythm of the prose that works on the psyche, stilling or stimulating.<\/em>
\nHumans imitate or re-present the world through art: poetry, drama and epic. That drive, claimed\u00a0Aristotle<\/a>, sets humans apart from animals.<\/p>\n

In 1987 Jerome Bruner proposed that \u201cworld making\u201d is the \u201cprincipal function of mind\u201d, in both the sciences and arts. As humans, we are drawn to the momentum of narrative to tell our stories,\u00a0he says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We seek to make sense of the events in our lives, as if life really were a three-act play with a clear narrative arc. (Conveniently summarised as: \u201cGet him up a tree; throw rocks at him; get him down.\u201d)<\/p>\n

How reading works<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Reading is one way we seek to understand our worlds. Evolutionary psychologists propose the brain is\u00a0\u201cdesigned for reading\u201d<\/a>, just as it is for language, facial recognition or other drives. The act of reading engages both cognitive and \u2013 especially where there\u2019s a narrative \u2013 emotional processes.<\/p>\n

Children learning to read must first grasp the basics of recognition (sound-letter-phoneme-word) and then proceed to the higher-order cognitive skill of comprehension of the meaning of the text (semantics).<\/p>\n

It is at that next level of meaning-making that words connect and stir the emotions. That might be fear (Frankenstein<\/a>), love (Pride and Prejudice<\/a>), outrage (Germaine Greer\u2019s polemic\u00a0The Female Eunuch<\/a>) or existential angst (Albert Camus\u2019 philosophical novel L\u2019Etranger\/The Outsider<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But how does this process \u201cwork\u201d? Or, as Saunders puts it: \u201cHow does [the writer] seduce, persuade, console, distract?\u201d<\/p>\n

How reading between the gaps invites us in<\/strong><\/h4>\n

World or meaning making can occur\u00a0directly<\/em>\u00a0by acquiring knowledge (for example, when reading that tent manual) or\u00a0indirectly<\/em>, through our engagement with the social world, art and our meaning-making faculties.<\/p>\n

Works of art invite thought and feeling. This \u201cindirect communication<\/a>\u201d of literature is one of the unique affordances (or benefits) it offers readers.<\/p>\n

Meaning-making\u00a0is<\/a>\u00a0a transaction between author, text and reader; the \u201cgap\u201d between the words and the reader\u2019s interpretation, shaped by their own experiences and predispositions, is critical. Thus, an author might seek to move a reader \u2013 but whether the reader is moved will depend on individual circumstances and preferences. (Not the least among these is the skill of the writer, of course.)<\/p>\n

Book clubs<\/a>, where heated discussions can be motivated by how books and their characters made readers feel, are a great example. So is consumer review site\u00a0Goodreads<\/a>, and\u00a0#BookTok<\/a>, the sector of TikTok where books that make readers cry dominate.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0Flannery O\u2019Connor<\/a>\u00a0says, \u201cthe writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make\u00a0live<\/em>\u201d (my italics). In other words,\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0books will always speak to\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0readers. And those same books will leave other readers cold \u2013 or even make them regret joining a book club.<\/p>\n