Display candidate transaction variables for article
| Id | 605 | |
| Author | Brewster L. | |
| Title | Murder by the book: Using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource | |
| Reference | Brewster L.; Murder by the book: Using crime fiction as a bibliotherapeutic resource ;Medical Humanities vol:43 issue: 1.0 page:62.0 |
Link to article | https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84994853623&doi=10.1136%2fmedhum-2016-011069&partnerID=40&md5=ae785852bf7c83ca96e5ac7872fd43b1 |
| Abstract | Crime is a popular genre of fiction, widely read but sometimes seen as ‘throwaway’. Disregarding this type of fiction because it is seen as low quality does not take into account its value to readers. Reading has been established as a means of improving mental health and well-being—often known as bibliotherapy. This often focuses on fiction considered to have literary merit rather than genre fiction like crime. However, in framing therapeutic reading in this way, the impact of texts considered to have low cultural value such as crime has been concealed. Examining readers’ responses as a starting point identifies some reasons why crime fiction fulfils a need. Readers in an empirical study spoke about the strong narrative as a distraction, the predictability as a comfort and the safe distance from events as a reassurance that left them feeling that reading crime fiction was a refuge from the world. In exploring readers’ responses in relation to the academic literature, the paper argues that there is a need to think differently about how readers engage with texts and how they experience reading as therapeutic, with a role for fiction like crime. © 2017, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. |
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| Enabling people to find pleasure in reading can be considered an outcomeas well as a process of managing symptoms of poor mental health and well-being. . | From a therapeutic point of view, supporting people to find pleasure in an activity like reading can be seen as a recovery-focused outcome. . | Readingfrom poems to novels and non-fictionis used to positive effect, particularly where people have poor well-being or diagnosed mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. . | Readers identified that reading improved their mental and physical well-being by enabling them to relax.34 . | When discussing the benefits of reading for improving mental health, he considered reading these texts to be a form of treatment, helping him to avoid ruminating on the causes of his depression. . | The aim of these interventions is to bring together readers with texts that they may find restorative. . | Further research with readers exploring their preferences may help to develop current interventions and identify new ways in which reading can be used as a supportive tool for mental health problems.. | Several key studies have examined observed reading practices (asking readers what they read and what impact it had on them), concluding that reading is viewed positively and can comfort, inspire, provide validation of emotions and selfrecognition, be cathartic and help to provide information to cope with life.32 33 . |
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