Reading and Mental Health

by Josie Billington (Editor)

Overview

This book brings together into one edited volume the most compelling rationales for literary reading and health, the best current practices in this area and state of the art research methodologies. It consolidates the findings and insights of this burgeoning field of enquiry across diverse disciplines and groups: psychologists, neurologists, and social scientists; literary scholars, writers and philosophers; medical researchers and practitioners; reading charities and arts organisations.

Following introductory chapters on the literary-historical background to reading and health, the book is divided into four key sections. The first part focuses on Practices, showcasing reading interventions and cultures in clinical and community mental health care and in secure settings. This is followed by Research Methodologies, featuring innovative qualitative and quantitative approaches, and by a section covering Theory, with chapters from eminent thinkers in psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis. The final part is concerned with Implementation, incorporating perspectives from health professionals, commissioners and reading practitioners.

This innovate work explains why reading matters in health and wellbeing, and offers a foundational text to future scholars in the field and to health professionals and policy-makers in relation to the embedding of reading practices in professional health care.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030217617
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	09/05/2019
Edition description:	1st ed. 2019
Pages:	455
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Josie Billington is Reader in English Literature and Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool, UK. She has published widely on Victorian fiction and poetry and on interdisciplinary studies of the value of literary reading for health, including Is Literature Healthy? (2016).

Table of Contents

Chapter One. Introduction; Josie Billington.- PART ONE; READING AND HEALTH: MEDICINE TO LITERATURE, LITERATURE TO THERAPY.- Chapter Two. Comfort in a Whirlwind; Christopher Dowrick.- Chapter Three. The Sonnet Cure: Renaissance Poetics to Romantic Prosaics; Grace Farrington and Philip Davis.- Chapter Four. The Victorian Novel: Laying the Foundations for ‘Bibliotherapy’; Grace Farrington, Philip Davis and Josie Billington.- PART TWO; PRACTICES.- Chapter Five. Reading for Depression/Mental Health; Clare Ellis, Eleanor McCann, Anne Line Dalsgård.- Chapter Six. Reading for Dementia; Katie Clarke, Charlotte Weber, Susan McLaine.- Chapter Seven. Reading in Prisons; Alexis McNay, Charlie Darby-Villis, Ann Walmsley.- Chapter Eight. Reading in Clinical Contexts; Grace Farrington, Kate McDonnell and Helen Cook.- PART THREE; RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES.- Chapter Nine. Qualitative Methodologies I; Jude Robinson and Josie Billington, Ellie Gray and Gundi Kiemle, Melissa Chapple.- ChapterTen. Qualitative Methods II; Josie Billington and Philip Davis, Mette Steenberg, Grace Farrington and Fiona Magee, Thor Magnus Tangeraas, Kelda Green.- Chapter Eleven. Linguistic Approaches; Sofia Lampropulou and Kremena Koleva, Josie Billington, Philip Davis, Gavin Brookes and Kevin Harvey.- Chapter Twelve. Quantitative Methodologies; Rhiannon Corcoran, Josie Billington and Megan Watkins, Mette Steenberg, Charlotte Christianson, Nikolai Ladegaard, Don Kuiken.- Chapter Thirteen. Reading: Brain, Mind and Body; Philip Davis, Rhiannon Corcoran, Rick Rylance and Adam Zeman, David Kidd, Christophe de Bezenac.- PART FOUR; TOWARDS A THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF READING AND HEALTH.- Chapter Fourteen. Reading and Psychiatric Practices; David Fearnley and Grace Farrington.- Chapter Fifteen. Reading and Psychology I, ‘Reading Minds: Fiction and its Relation to the Mental Worlds of Self and Others’; Rhiannon Corcoran and Keith Oatley.- Chapter Sixteen Reading and Psychology II, ‘Metaphoricity, Inexpressible Realizations, and Expressive Enactment’; Don Kuiken.- Chapter Seventeen. Reading and Psychoanalysis; Adam Phillips, Philip Davis.- PART FIVE; READING AND HEALTH: IMPLEMENTATION - BARRIERS AND ENABLERS.- Chapter Eighteen. Reading and Mental Health; Ellie Gray, Grace Farrington, Mette Steenberg.- Chapter Nineteen. Reading and Dementia; Martin Orrell and Tom Dening, Nusrat Husain, Sally, Rimkeit, Gill Claridge, Dalice Sim.- Chapter Twenty. Reading in Prisons; Fiona Magee.- Chapter Twenty One. Reading in a Clinical Context Reading and Chronic Pain; Kate McDonnell.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is an excellent and long overdue book. It brings together into one volume the full range of thinking - from psychology, medicine, psychoanalysis, literature and neuroscience - on why reading matters to human flourishing. As well as the most recent compelling evidence of the value of reading in clinic and care home, community and secure mental health settings, the book offers persuasive testimony from health professionals and service users who have first-hand knowledge of the transformative power of literary reading. Above all, this book brings shared literary reading powerfully to life. It is an essential read for those new to the shared reading phenomenon and to all who have been part of the journey. This book bears witness to how far we have come.”(Jane Davis, Founder and Director of The Reader)

“The power of literature to enhance wellbeing and mental health has been increasingly recognized in recent years. This definitive study brings together the relevant practice and research, with contributions from GPs and neurologists as well as literary scholars, and with hard evidence of the benefits of bibliotherapy for those in prisons, hospitals and care homes. Rich both in historical insights and in pointers to how ‘shared reading’ can be developed to alleviate disadvantage and distress, it is a comprehensive and invaluable book.” (Blake Morrison, Poet, Author and Professor of Creative and Life Writing, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.)

“This volume constitutes a landmark in health humanities research. Many people assume there must be a positive correlation between literary reading and mental well-being but remarkably few studies have looked at the relationship systematically. This volume is a compendium of the most up-to-date and comprehensive evidence, bringing together a diverse range of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers, to shine a light on this fascinating and tricky area. Josie Billington and her fellow contributors have produced a collection that will be required reading for health humanists, practitioners, psychologists and literary readers.” (Professor Neil Vickers, Centre for the Humanities and Health, King's College London, UK)