The Power of Words: First Reflections “avant la léttre” on Bibliotherapy and Therapeutic Writing
The scribes of the Egyptian pharaohs were conscious of the power they had to dominate the word, the techniques and channels of communication at that time. We are told about this in the Praise of the Scribe. This is an anonymous text written ca. 1,300 AD during the New Kingdom (1570-1090 AD), the Nineteenth Dynasty (that of the “Biblical” pharaoh Ramesses II the Great –1335-1200–) (Lichtheim (tr.) 1978, pp. 176-177)1:
As to those learned scribes,
Of the time that came after the gods,
They who foretold the future,
Their names have become everlasting,
While they departed, having finished their lives,
and all their kin are forgotten.
[…]
Their portals and mansions have crumbled.
The ka-servants are [gone];
Their tombstones are covered with soil
Their graves are forgotten.
Their name is pronounced over their books,
Which they made while they had being;
Good is the memory of their makers,
It is for ever and all time!
Words are powerful. Not only to write state agreements and contribute to the solution (or to the problem). Words can also be therapeutic not just on a public but also on a personal level. Regarding the latter, it is well known the inscription on the frontispiece of Ramesses´s library that described its contents as “medicine for the soul” (ψῡχῆς ἰατρεῖον). Diodorus Siculus (I c. AD) transmitted this information in his Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική because words could be “therapeutic” for so many things (Lutz, 1978). Written words are powerful precisely because they are not just words, but they involve the complex universe of cultural references, knowledge and feelings that surrounds them. It is about managing (with the narrative itself of a past event or of something imagined by a person) the processing of that complex universe. Storytelling can organize, order, or sequence events from the catharsis to the overcoming of the cause of the infirmity, or can even manage happiness (Martínez-Roig, Merma-Molina & Urrea-Solano, 2020; Martínez-Roig, Urrea-Solano & Hernández-Amorós, 2021).
Classical, medieval, and Renaissance literature offers us numerous examples of its cathartic value. The creation of the topos of ´literature as therapy´ is considered an innovative element, a proof of being at the threshold of the literary Renaissance, for instance in the case of Roís de Corella, as we will see below. Currently, it is not a trivial topic, but an emerging line of research in both literary writing –especially in lyric– as well as in reflections about it (even with a therapeutic goal). The salutary effects of literature, reading and writing are not minor nor random, in terms of the improvement of cognitive skills and capabilities, and even in the case of serious psychological issues. Reading and writing (with or without artistic purposes) play a not-so-minor role in the so-called expressive therapies. These use creative arts as forms of therapy, either in the form of expressive therapies or in the form of creative arts therapy (art, dance, theater, music, writing, poetry, psychodrama). Creative writing has proven to be useful as clinical support in cancer treatments (Wu, Liu, Zheng, Xu, Chen et al., 2021; Antoni & Dhabahar, 2019; Zachariae & O’Toole 2015) as well as in depression and emotional illness (Singer & Singer, 2008; Nazarian & Smyth, 2013; Travagin, Margola, Dennis & Revenson, 2016; Fioretti, Mazzocco, Riva, Oliveri, Masiero & Pravettoni, 2016). Bibliotheratpy is also similar in terms of its therapeutic goals and virtues (Rottenberg, 2022; Gualano, Bert, Martorana, Voglino, Andriolo, Thomas, Gramaglia, Zeppegno & Siliquini, 2017; Betzalel & Schechtman, 2017; Cannon 2018).