From the author: This article was prepared by journalist Natalia Zhebit based on her research on bibliotherapy. I don't remember if it was published anywhere. The text is given without editing. Imagine that you can take not a pill or potion for a headache or insomnia, but a specific poem or poem, or, along with the usual medical procedures, undergo a course of “book therapy” in a hospital. Today in a number of countries - Finland, France, Sweden, England, Germany - collections of therapeutic poetry are sold in bookstores in the form of medicine packages. And in medical clinics, patients are prescribed reading individual works along with medications to speed up recovery... Psychologists have noticed that the more people read in general, the less they need real medicines. They have a lower risk of developing neuroses and psychosomatic diseases. A person who reads is more resistant to stress, adapts more easily to the life around him, and is capable of development. In recent years, a peculiar imbalance has arisen in our lives - we began to read books less (many other sources of information appeared), the quality of books decreased (everyone was filled with “minute books” ), the number of libraries—places where a reader could find advice on reading—has decreased. Accordingly (a direct connection can be seen in this!) - people’s health has sharply deteriorated, the number of mental disorders and neuroses has increased, and the number of pharmacies and clinics in the country has increased. Psychologists explain that health problems arise in people when they do not realize themselves. A person who has not made up his mind and has not realized himself as a person cannot be happy and healthy in principle. The solution to all these issues is possible through cultural resuscitation - art, music, theater, communication... and books - the entire arsenal of human experience accumulated over millennia and accumulated in libraries... Book therapy Libraries have been called pharmacies for the soul since ancient times. Good books, literally and figuratively, are truly ideal “medicines” for human problems without statute of limitations or contraindications. There is a method by which books are successfully used to treat people - Bibliotherapy (from the Latin biblio - book and Greek therapia - treatment, care sick). It combines two arts - healing and word-creation. This method arose on the border of psychiatry and literary criticism, and, according to the famous psychologist V.N. Myasishchev, successfully combined bibliology, psychology and psychotherapy. It has found application in various spheres of social life, including pedagogy and medicine. According to the definition adopted back in the last century, bibliotherapy is “the use of specially selected reading material as a therapeutic agent in general medicine and psychiatry in order to solve the patient’s personal problems with the help of guided reading.” Such reading differs from ordinary reading in that when selecting books ( it is carried out in this method by such a specialist as a bibliotherapist) the mental state of a person, his illnesses, problems and experiences, level of education, intelligence are taken into account. This is necessary in order to influence a person in the right direction. Treatment of a person with a book is carried out in different forms - through reading. books selected by a bibliotherapist, or reading and discussing books together with a psychologist, psychiatrist and bibliotherapist, in the form of creative processing of what they read - independent creativity (essays, poems, stories). comprehension, and by developing the ability to resist it. Reading literature, according to experts, triggers a mental mechanism for repressing negative emotions. New feelings, desires, thoughts learned from books displace painful ones, and thus prevent their destructive effects on the human body andhis soul. Psychologist + librarian? Library therapy as a method was initially developed through the efforts of two parties - doctors (psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists) and library workers and teachers. These aspects still complement the method today with their research and practice, and together they give a lot to optimize a person’s communication with a book. The main difference between the work of psychotherapists and psychiatrists in bibliotherapy from the work of librarians is that the former conduct it with patients, and the latter with everyone who needs information and psychological help. Recently, attention to bibliotherapy has arisen on the part of sociologists involved in conflictology. They saw in the method a means of minimizing social anomalies. The main disadvantage of the bibliotherapy method is that it still has many “blank spots” both in theory and in practice, undeveloped topics, undefined terms, it is used in a simplified, superficial way, without special training and knowledge. The scientific works on bibliotherapy themselves are devoted either to the therapeutic effects of art (art therapy, fairy tale therapy, for example), or to the work of libraries. Even the name of the method is found in different versions: bibliopsychotherapy, librotherapy or, proposed by Bekhterev, libropsychotherapy. Nevertheless, the method, according to bibliotherapy researchers, deserves attention, as it is one of the most powerful means of aesthetic therapy. As you know, the word both heals and... cripples. And you need to learn how to use it meaningfully. The method of bibliotherapy is believed to be able to solve three main problems: bibliotherapy - books help to more easily endure illness and physical suffering; psychotherapeutic - guided reading serves the treatment of neuroses and mental disorders, helps in the rehabilitation of the disabled; auxiliary - the method is used in combination with others to treat somatic diseases. In the last two cases, the participation of a doctor (psychotherapist or psychologist) and a bibliotherapist (he is prepared from specially trained library workers) is mandatory. The method has one more application - a book can be an auxiliary anesthesia for serious illnesses, when pain cannot be relieved with medications, and the last method remains psychological substitution - reading. This is precisely the application proposed by the sociologist of the Hematology Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences N. Nazarkin. In world practice, the bibliotherapeutic method is represented by two main schools, which differ in their attitude to its use. The American School of Bibliotherapy considers the method a treatment for emotional problems and mental disorders. And he divides bibliotherapy into clinical and psychohygienic. Recommends its use only in hospital settings (already used in seven hospital centers in the United States). The European bibliotherapeutic school (mentioned in connection with the name of the Swedish neurologist Jarob Billström) uses it more widely. Bibliotherapy sessions are held in places such as libraries, isotheks, cafes, clubs, literary and music salons. These are collective and individual readings accompanied by music, mainly poetry, under the guidance of bibliotherapists. This “spirit therapy” helps relieve people from fears, stress, and conflict. In Western European countries there are national associations of bibliotherapists (France, Finland). Associations of social workers (Germany, Sweden) are engaged in similar work. International scientific medical conferences and forums are devoted to bibliotherapy. In our country, bibliotherapy programs are implemented in a number of libraries and library centers (Moscow, Kazan, Altai) and on the basis of psychological and psychiatric clinics, but to what extent is difficult to assess, since since the late 80s In the 1960s, the method was forgotten. Recently, it has been remembered again; courses and seminars on bibliotherapy have begun, and bibliotherapists have been trained on the basis of pedagogical and library universities. Is treatment through a book a new method in history?humanity began with the appearance of the first spiritual books. Bibliotherapy was carried out by temple priests who performed the mission of a doctor. Philo of Alexandria, in his work “De vita contemplativa,” described the first community and philosophical school of therapists who devoted themselves to understanding God and studied the teachings of the prophets in the sacred books. They were called nomen agentis - from the verb “to serve”, “to honor”, ​​and also “to heal”. They mastered an art more powerful than ordinary doctors - they healed not only the body, but also the soul. When the first libraries arose, books immediately began to be perceived by people not only as carriers of knowledge, but also as a kind of “cure” for spiritual ailments. Back in the 13th century. BC e. Pharaoh Ramses II ordered the inscription “Pharmacy for the soul” to be carved above the entrance to the library of the city of Thebes. Plato saw in the book the ability to be a real medicine. Aristotle discovered that poetry relieves fear and suffering. Avicenna in his writings noted the healing properties of the “word” in healing and put it in first place in importance. Aristophanes read his comedies to criminals with the aim of reforming them. In the Eastern fairy tale “1000 and One Nights,” the doctor recommended that the ruler turn over the pages of a wise book to cure his illness. In the ancient Indian monument Rigveda, a recommendation was given to heal the heart - to read wise books. In Europe, it was church libraries that began the practice of healing with books. In the Cairo hospital in the 13th century, reading the Koran was considered part of the healing process. And secular doctors included bibliotherapy in their arsenal. The famous Erasmus of Rotterdam treated abscesses on his face by reading funny books. The doctor Sunday in England in the 17th century “prescribed” reading of Cervantes’s novel “Don Quixote” to patients along with potions. In the 18th century in France and England, reading began to be considered one of the methods of restoring mental health. In 1836, in the textbook “General Therapy” by the Russian doctor I.E. Dyadkovsky reading is called one of the main means of psychotherapy. In the mid-19th century, libraries for patients appeared at hospitals. In 1888, the Moscow Psychiatric Clinic opened, where the psychiatrist S.S., who headed it, opened. Korsakov, applies a “system of moral influence” - the influence of works of art on the mentally ill. The idea of ​​a new type of treatment with the help of books was remarkably accurately expressed at that time by the writer Marcel Proust. He said that in cases of spiritual decline, reading can become something of a therapeutic discipline, the task of which is to introduce the lazy mind into mental life. And books play the same role as another psychotherapist for other neurasthenics. He explained: “The most elevated conversation, the most convincing advice in such cases is useless, because by themselves they cannot generate any special activity. Therefore, intervention is needed, although it comes from others, but acts in the depths of ourselves; this is precisely the impulse coming from another mind, but received in solitude... To the extent that reading is an initiation, a magic key that opens for us in the depths of ourselves the door of abodes into which we otherwise would not be able to penetrate, it plays a healing role in our life. And on the contrary, reading becomes dangerous when, instead of awakening us to an independent spiritual life, it tries to replace it with itself..." Help, do not harm, develop! Systematic research on bibliotherapy began, as various sources report, in the 19th century. It received scientific justification at the beginning of the twentieth century along with the development of psychoanalysis. The term “bibliotherapy” was officially recognized in 1916 by the US Library Association. The use of the method began in hospitals for veterans of the First World War, and later continued in ordinary hospitals. American A. Haynes, who worked at St. Elizabeth's Hospital (Washington), even compiled a certain list of personal qualities necessary for a bibliotherapist - a good humanitarian education, love of literature, value orientations, desire to help others, which were later reduced to three main onespostulates - the motto of bibliotherapy: help, do not harm, develop. At the same time, the first standards were created within the US Federation of Bibliotherapists to control the quality of practical training of bibliotherapists. Bibliotherapy work is recognized as a type of library services, and bibliotherapists are included in the staff of public and departmental libraries, and work in hospitals, helping doctors. In Russia, bibliotherapy as a method also begins to be used during this period: doctors took advantage of the influence of literature on patients - I.E. Dyadkovsky, S.S. Korsakov, V.M. Bekhterev and others. The very first steps in using bibliotherapeutic methods in medicine were made by M.V. Velvovsky. In 1927, at a psychotherapeutic dispensary, then at the Kharkov psychoneurological hospital, he began to use bibliotherapy, arguing that the patient should not read just anything. The psychotherapist must make a diagnosis and formulate what kind of plot the patient needs, and the librarian must select the appropriate books for his treatment. And the therapeutic effect in this case was based on the patient’s recognition of his problem, reflected in the work of art, and advice to follow specific examples. Research on the therapeutic effects of books on human health was carried out in the libraries of rest homes and medical boarding houses. Articles in the magazine “Resort Business” for 1928 noted the positive impact of humorous books and memoirs on vacationers. In the 20–30s. general requirements for conducting psychotherapeutic and psychological education within the framework of bibliotherapeutic work were developed, such well-known specialists as Yu.Yu. contributed to this. Bekhterev, B.O. Borisovich, V.A. Nevsky. During the Great Patriotic War, many doctors and librarians working in military hospitals noted the great dependence of treatment results on the books read by patients. Generalization of this experience allowed Professor M.P. After the war, Kutanin raised the question of the need to develop bibliotherapy in the country. A whole series of his articles entitled “Bibliotherapy” were published in medical newspapers, and he introduced this term into wide scientific circulation. In the 50s, bibliotherapy began to be used in the treatment of children, using reading classical fiction to correct various disorders (stuttering), treat neuroses, and this brought success. In 1967, in the basic psychotherapeutic sanatorium "Berezovsky Mineral Waters" (Kharkov region), the first bibliotherapy room was opened under the guidance of bibliographer Agnes Mikhailovna Miller, who contributed to the development of the method by researching in practice which diseases are best treated with a certain book. She has written scientific monographs on this topic. Almost 30,000 patients passed through her office. The same bibliotherapy rooms later appeared in other sanatoriums of the Union. The last all-Union seminar of domestic bibliotherapists was held in Saki in 1987. Reader - book - author When talking about the development of bibliotherapy as a scientific method, it is impossible to ignore such a related method as bibliopsychology, which arose at the intersection of psychology and literary criticism literally at the same time - in 1916. But this science did not solve the issue of treating a person with the help of books. She began studying the social and psychological aspects of the impact of books on readers in order to answer the question of how books influence people at the level of text, meaning, and what books specific people need. Thus, bibliopsychology created a scientific basis for the use of bibliotherapy. The leading role in creating the system of influence of books on the reader was played by the works of the scientist, bibliographer and educator N.A. Rubakin, author of bibliopsychology. In his work “Among Books” he wrote: “Three great forces are contained in a book - knowledge, understanding, mood.” He was engaged in educational work all his life: the total circulation of his own popular science books reached 20 million. It also amounted to about 15thousands of individual reading and self-education programs. He was in correspondence with tens of thousands of readers and supervised their self-education. He collected two huge libraries - he donated 130 thousand volumes to the St. Petersburg League of Education and bequeathed 100 thousand volumes to the State Library named after V.I. Lenin in Moscow, where it is located. In 1907, he was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, and lived there all his life, without losing contact with his homeland and exerting a huge influence on the education of the country's population. In 1916, at the Geneva Pedagogical Institute, J.-J. Rousseau founded his own science - bibliopsychology. In Lausanne he created a unique center for scientific research and promotion of books - the International Institute of Bibliopsychology. Rubakin wrote a series of books and articles on bibliopsychology. In his work “Principles and methods of bibliological psychology in their application to medical practice,” in particular, he considered the triad “reader - book (text) - author,” where the main role belongs to the reader, who assimilates and comprehends the texts, bringing something into them. then yours. And, if we take into account the reader’s psychotype, then, according to bibliopsychological teaching, it is possible to calculate and program the reader’s reaction to a specific book. But the scientist’s personal goal was not just to teach how to influence people through books, but to arouse readers’ interest in serious, highly artistic and scientific literature. While studying books, Rubakin proposed taking into account everything connected with them when selecting them: the writer’s intention, plot, fiction means, layout, font, illustrations, publication format, level of professionalism of the printer, views of the publisher, demand in the book market. All this, in his opinion, significantly influences the reader’s attitude towards the book. Thus, he created the foundations of the modern theory of mass communication. And his ideas and methods are still used to this day to diagnose and treat people using bibliotherapy. What and how books treat: Best of all, doctors admit, bibliotherapy treats neuroses - a common disease that occurs under the influence of difficult experiences and mental stress. In the sixties of the last century, the American psychoanalyst Louise Hay expressed the idea of ​​the neuroticism of modern society. The high pace of life has a strong impact on the human psyche. According to the observations of psychotherapists, today almost every second person needs the help of a specialist. This is approximately how book treatment of neuroses is carried out in practice. First, the doctor diagnoses the condition and analyzes the patient's personality. Then he gives recommendations to the bibliotherapist on the selection of books, taking into account the patient’s problems and experiences, his education, etc. There is a certain general scheme of assignments in this case. First, the patient must “receive” tonic literature that distracts from gloomy thoughts. Then - books, the heroes of which fell into the same “binding” as the patient and found a way out. The next batch of books should strengthen the decision and belief that there is something worth living for. The goal of the final stage is to form or restore lost skills in reading good fiction. And this is the most important point, since neurosis is a disease that, as doctors say, destroys the will and personality, aesthetic perception itself, when a person is no longer able to enjoy books and communication. He looks everywhere only for what excites him - parallels with his thoughts and feelings (the “picking in the wound” syndrome). Therefore, the first task of the doctor and bibliotherapist is to protect him from such topics and literature. Secondly, he should receive only highly artistic literature, which heals not so much with a plot, but with artistic means, special poetry and the rhythm of the word, thus restoring a person’s taste and everything else. In the process of book therapy, according to existing methods, the doctor must constantly monitor changes in the patient’s condition in order to prevent a breakdown, “going into illness.” He should discuss with him what he read, correctingat the same time, perception, strengthening or weakening the impact on a person with new “purposes” of books. Over the past decades, the use of the bibliotherapy method has accumulated extensive experience in the treatment of various diseases. These include mental disorders, psychosomatic diseases, neuroses, as well as such serious diseases as tuberculosis and oncology. It has been noticed that in these cases, the “communication” of patients with the works of “masters of words” awakens in them an interest in life, which is important for the success of treatment. In Germany, for example, doctors “prescribe” specially selected passages from the Bible to cancer patients, which strengthen a person’s faith, bring comfort and more... Cases have been recorded when patients recovered, reconsidering their lives and believing in the Miracle of healing. It should be noted that the Bible was and remains the Book of books, with which a person finds the main thing - the spiritual meaning of life, internal integrity, and therefore his health. With the help of books, anomalies in the development of children, visual impairments, and hearing are successfully treated. Books are used for cerebral palsy, for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities, recovery from drug addiction, prevention of antisocial behavior (children's clubs, libraries, hospitals), influence on antisocial people (prison libraries, hospitals). The experience of using poetry to relieve nervous and physical stress in people is interesting. including those with diseases of the musculoskeletal system. The author witnessed how, in one of the capital’s clubs, children who were developmentally behind their peers and disabled children played together with real artists in a play. They felt themselves in the center of attention and success, communicated with pleasure, forgetting about their inadequacy, sang and read poetry on equal terms with stage professionals. Art therapy as a form of bibliotherapy (and aesthetic therapy) in such cases allows one to achieve good results, as does such a form of bibliotherapy as fairy tale therapy or play therapy, which are often used to treat neuroses in children and rehabilitation of the disabled. From the experience of specialistsPsychotherapist Alexander Vakurov (Ivanovo) uses bibliotherapy in psychological and psychotherapeutic work with patients not as a therapeutic method, but as a method of personality development in order to expand a person’s ideas about himself, his capabilities, and life. He “assigns” not only works of world literature for this purpose. This could be an atlas of the Louvre or the Hermitage. Or a collection of Russian fairy tales or even jokes. Instructions for making stoves or origami. Anything that can expand a person’s ideas is used. Not to mention the Bible, spiritual texts. And all this works. All this is a powerful means of increasing a particular person’s access to his internal resources. This is what A. Vakurov himself claims. Among those who are often mentioned among domestic specialists dealing with the problems of bibliotherapy and the use of reading for treatment and personality development is O. L. Kabachek, candidate of psychological sciences, head of the department of socio-psychological problems of children's reading of the Russian State children's library, author of two hundred articles, several monographs relating to bibliotherapy, the psychology of reading, the impact of reading and literary creativity on human development. She and her department are engaged in preparing scientific and methodological literature on bibliotherapy and bibliopsychology, philosophy, psychology and reading pedagogy for librarians, teachers, psychologists and parents. Her latest books are “A Fairy Tale in the Computer Age”, “Dialogues about Culture. Classes with children 5-7 years old: A manual for preschool teachers, parents, tutors.” She says that her interest in the method arose when working with a group of preschoolers who were lagging behind their peers in development. I began to “pull them up” and became interested in bibliotherapy. In November 1999, she organized and conducted an International Seminar on Bibliotherapy at the Russian State Children's Library. And today she believes that the method is promising, but not everyone who declares it knows it: - Working with teenagers withcancer diseases in the 90s on the basis of the Institute of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences named after Blokhin, I realized that with the help of literary creativity therapy it is possible to correct the personal attitudes of patients, their attitude towards death, towards themselves, towards people... When I worked with five-year-old preschoolers, based on their literary development (such an experiment was conducted), Nastya (neurotic)) overcame her fear of epilepsy-like attacks. This happened unexpectedly for me, during just six lessons on writing fairy tales. The process of this work is described in detail in my PhD thesis. What is the most important thing in applying the method? Both accurate diagnosis and the exposure process itself are important. Several years ago I conducted a special study of the bibliotherapeutic effect, more precisely, the effect of creativity therapy. In the course of writing, the children tried to resolve a problematic situation of a moral nature: it turned out that it was artistic and creative activity, the acceptance of the author’s position that allowed them to take a step towards overcoming inadequate psychological attitudes. - In what cases is the method of bibliotherapy contraindicated? - Acute conditions, recent grief (for example, when a person is blind due to injury). Here music therapy is indicated. - Who should be involved in the further development of the method? - Psychologists, psychotherapists. In our country, the method is promoted and developed so far only by individual authors - Kukarev in Perm, Nazarkin in Moscow, etc. - Where is this method taught? - They teach it a little everywhere. And not very good. - Do you have your own bibliorecipes that you can share? - If a book is annoying, put it aside. Don't buy cheap stuff - it will leave a residue. The classics are forever! Read good authors. - What is the best bibliotherapy for you personally? - When I’m in a bad mood and a lot of different personal problems have accumulated, I read good books, cry, empathize with the characters, get out of the crisis. But the book must be a masterpiece! Otherwise, I read it as an editor or a specialist in artistic perception, analytically. And the most effective thing is to write poetry, stories, novels yourself. When I don’t write for a long time, it’s stressful. And for me, psychotherapy is looking for your ancestors in books, the Internet, archives... Bibliorecipes The main principle of bibliotherapy: “A specific book for a specific patient at a specific time.” This principle is close to the thesis of the bibliopsychological theory of bibliopsychologist N.A. Rubakin. But there is no consensus among psychologists and bibliotherapists on the issue of choosing books. With books, it’s like with medicine - what helps one person can be useless and even harmful for another. Thus, some experts do not recommend A. Milne’s book “Winnie the Pooh and All-All-All” to children as hyper-optimistic, and L. Carroll’s fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland” - as epileptoid. At the same time, all experts recognize the bibliotherapeutic significance of Russian classics - the works of L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, F.M. Dostoevsky, and somewhat lower - the works of popular Soviet writers - K. Simonov, M .Gorky, B.A. Mozhaev, A.N. Rybakov, V.V. Orlov and others. And even lower - the works of contemporaries. Psychologists say that the so-called modernist works of D. Joyce, A. Camus, F. Kafka, J. P. Sartre, V. Pelevin, which depict hopeless, dead-end life situations, have a clearly negative, sometimes destructive effect on the psyche, insoluble conflicts, characters doomed to an unhappy life and meaningless death. A number of books in socio-bibliotherapy are considered as a stress-generating factor and are excluded from reading. The very condition of a person, his illnesses, mood, and intellectual level significantly change the perception of the book. Therefore, “any” reading is not as safe as it seems. Imposing literature on a person is, in principle, unacceptable, especially in relation to children; it can discourage reading, which is what happens in schools. So, the books most often recommended by bibliotherapists from various sources are Green A. Scarlet Sails, Aleksin A. Stories, Bazin E. Get Up and Go,