Could your beach reads actually be therapeutic? Bibliotherapy suggests they might

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The novels Book Boyfriend, Atmosphere and Can't Get Enough might be in your stack of beach reads, but are they good for your mental health?

While reading a novel and escaping into a fictional world can be enjoyable, those who study and practice bibliotherapy, the use of written materials as a form of treatment for mental health conditions, suggest there are aspects of reading that can measurably improve our well-being.

It's not a new concept. Though the term bibliotherapy was coined in a 1916 article by American essayist and minister Samuel McChord Crothers, American psychiatrists and other physicians as far back as the early 1800s argued that reading benefited their patients and pushed for hospitals to include libraries.

In more recent times, bibliotherapy refers to things like self-help books and workbooks that clinical therapists can direct patients to read or complete to improve their mental health. Researchers are now exploring how creative bibliotherapy can use novels, poetry, plays or even picture books to achieve the same result.

Hoi Cheu, a trained marriage and family therapist and professor at the School of Liberal Arts at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., uses bibliotherapy to help patients cope with challenges such as loneliness.

He says for bibliotherapy to work, the therapist needs to learn what he called "the story of the patient."

Many who practice clinical bibliotherapy ask patients to find readings that interest them, then observe how they respond to the literature, he said in an email.

Cheu, whose PhD thesis was titled Zen and the Art of James Joyce, likened the use of creative bibliotherapy to the practice of Chinese herbal medicine.

"In short, reading literature is a process, and the readings are tools, not drugs."

Cheu says literary bibliotherapy works because it allows readers to use stories to figure out how to repair their own dysfunctional narratives.

But simply reading a book may not be enough to improve our well-being, according to James Carney, an associate professor at the London Interdisciplinary School in the U.K.

Carney, who has used a series of small experiments and questionnaires to study what makes creative bibliotherapy helpful, says he's found that the discussion of the reading material is more beneficial than the act of reading itself.

For example, he says it helps if patients can reflect on the material they've just read with a therapist or group to tease out how it may be relevant to their situation.