Bibliotherapy Guide and Module: Storytelling for Growth and Healing - Bibliotherapy Through the Years

The use of books and stories for therapy go a long way back to ancient times when a library in Thebes held the sign saying that it is a place for one to restore one’s soul. Thinkers of long ago have recognized the value of books and literature for one’s well-being. The idea that books, literature and places where it can be accessed, such as the library, contribute to a person’s growth, mindset and emotional health is as old as humanity itself. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Father of American Psychiatry (1811) recommended the use of books and reading materials as additional treatment for patients and clients in his clinic. In 1916, Samuel Crothers, a minister who was concerned with the response and the reaction of readers to a piece of literature defined bibliotherapy as a technique of bringing troubled persons and books together (Wooton, 2017). 

After World War I and II, mental health clinics and hospital facilities with psychiatric services in the US and in Europe opened medical libraries for the research and conduct of bibliotherapy.  Medical librarians would prescribe books and reading materials as companion therapy for patients who survived war and conflict. The Menninger Clinic, particularly, ventured into the research, study and practice of Clinical Bibliotherapy.

Further research in the history of bibliotherapy shows a nun, Sister Mary Agnes, used literature as a way to reach into children and their developmental issues. Books and stories were used to assist young readers in the understanding of their own problems and not as tools to teach morals and values. Dr. Caroline Shrodes, a psychiatrist, was the one responsible for laying down the process of bibliotherapy as akin to psychonanalysis. She identified three steps in the process namely, identification, catharsis and insight. By 1970, practitioners in the field of psychology, child development and education developed a growing interest in bibliotherapy. Rhea Joyce Rubins published a book, Using Bibliotherapy: A Guide to Theory and Practice where three different kinds of bibliotherapy were identified. These are Institutional Bibliotherapy, Clinical Bibliotherapy and Developmental Bibliotherapy.

It is the later kind, which is Developmental Bibliotherapy, that school librarians can be involved in various ways.