Talk:Bibliotherapy

Inline citations
I firmly believe the inline citation issue has been resolved for this article and the notification should be removed.--Soulparadox 16:08, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Wiki links
I have commenced inserting more Wiki links, but the process needs to be continued, as the original author only inserted a small number.--Soulparadox 16:19, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Literacy Rate
Under advantages and disadvantages, I am concerned that low literacy rate in certain demographics may retard the effectiveness of the therapy, but I don't have any citations to add it. 204.195.172.143 (talk) 12:25, 4 August 2013 (UTC)

History
I rewrote the History section to reflect the history of the field as opposed to children's bibliotherapy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Petercannon usf (talk • contribs) 23:11, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Therapeutic storytelling be merged into Bibliotherapy. The definition of bibliotherapy is an expressive therapy that involves the reading of specific texts with the purpose of healing. There seems to be almost no difference between that and the definition in this article  storytelling that uses creative metaphors to tell individualized stories that help to address challenging experiences in a child's (or adult's) life, offering possible resolutions and the opportunity for insight and reflection. This article claims that it is another field but does not explain the difference. The sources that talk about therapeutic storytelling seem to be limited to a small group of individuals. A very large majority of the links and references are affiliated to Susan Perrow and these have been added by a couple of WP:SPA accounts. At very best the difference is that the therapeutic story telling is a story written with an individual person's need in mind but the aims and mechanisms are identical to bibliotherapy. Domdeparis (talk) 08:38, 18 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Support, seems like the two articles are fundamentally similar and would benefit from a merge. Bakilas (talk) 09:29, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Thoughts on the previous merge and the article's current state
@Domdeparis @Bakilas

I recognise that in the past the concepts were written similarly on both articles at time of merge, and it is true the term "bibliotherapy" is used in both formal and informal (ie. subclinical or non-clinical) situations.

However, in light of the below review articles I am confident there is a substantial difference between the two. Bibliotherapy as a supportive psychotherapy is a brief, low-cost treatment mainly for mild to moderate depression, with a decent number of RCTs showing efficacy. It uses exclusively nonfiction books.

Bibliotherapy as a creative arts therapy modality, aka creative storytelling or "creative bibliotherapy" as referred to in many articles, as far as I can tell, is not necessarily brief, has poorer efficacy support from RCTs, often takes place outside of psychotherapy settings (ie. schools), is generally not considered a psychotherapy (much more similar to an occupational therapy IMO), and uses a broader range of (often fiction) books.

Reading through the wikipedia article on bibliotherapy, it seems clear to me that these two general types of bibliotherapy have been conflated. This seems to have led to frequent switching between the two without clear signaling to the reader, and overly broad/general statements with little value to the reader such as the following article quote:

With all this in mind, I think it is necessary to clearly differentiate between these two types of bibliotherapy in the article, and reconsider unmerging the two concepts. The concepts are clearly related; probably their biggest similarities are: being cost effective, often involving books for the treatment of depression. I'm inclined to believe the similarities end there.

I would appreciate some feedback on this perspective before I go off making larger edits to the wikipedia article. (I have already edited the lead section)

Glavin, Calla EY, and Paul Montgomery. "Creative bibliotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): a systematic review." Journal of Poetry Therapy 30.2 (2017): 95-107.

Gualano, M.R.; Bert, F.; Martorana, M.; Voglino, G.; Andriolo, V.; Thomas, R.; Gramaglia, C.; Zeppegno, P.; Siliquini, R. (December 2017). "The long-term effects of bibliotherapy in depression treatment: Systematic review of randomized clinical trials". Clinical Psychology Review. 58: 49–58. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2017.09.006. ISSN 0272-7358. Darcyisverycute (talk) 01:59, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Autobibliotherapy (as a form of logotherapy)
Viktor Frankl alludes to the potential success of "autobibliotherapy" in his book on logotherapy, Man's Search for Meaning. Namely, the possibility of curing oneself, or alleviating one's symptoms, through self-directed reading of appropriate materials. Many readers of Frankl's works, it seems, would attest to this possibility. I think there's merit in the idea, even if doctors would be deprived of power and money were it ever to catch on. It's the "auto" part that poses a problem for the medical establishment (or at least, I've seen bibliotherapy, but never autobibliotherapy, recommended by agencies such as the RACGP. Nor any of Frankl's writings). Prunella Vulgaris (talk) 05:41, 10 September 2023 (UTC)