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Bibliotherapy: Reading OVID During COVID
Emmanuel Stip1, Linda Östlundh1, Karim Abdel Aziz1
1Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Insights
Bibliotherapy offers psychological support for individuals experiencing distress during epidemics like COVID-19. This reading-based intervention helps healthcare workers and others cope with stress, verbalize emotions, and find solutions.
Area of Science:
- Medical Humanities
- Psychology
- Public Health
Background:
- Epidemics, such as COVID-19, cause significant emotional distress, particularly for frontline medical professionals.
- The post-epidemic period presents unique psychological challenges for healthcare workers.
- Bibliotherapy, a therapeutic use of reading, is a recognized intervention for stress management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the historical background and application of bibliotherapy.
- To propose a curated reading list relevant to pandemic experiences.
- To highlight bibliotherapy as a supportive tool for individuals affected by epidemics.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of bibliotherapy's effectiveness.
- Compilation of a reading list encompassing themes of pandemics, quarantine, and social impact.
- Analysis of bibliotherapy's role in psychological debriefing and emotional processing.
Main Results:
- Bibliotherapy is an accessible intervention during pandemics, suitable for both educational and clinical settings.
- Selected reading materials can aid in coping with stress, verbalizing emotions, and problem-solving.
- The proposed reading list offers diverse cultural and historical perspectives on epidemic-related experiences.
Conclusions:
- Bibliotherapy provides a valuable resource for psychological support and debriefing for healthcare workers during and after epidemics.
- This intervention can help individuals articulate feelings and develop adaptive coping mechanisms.
- Bibliotherapy serves as a transition to softer, humanities-focused experiences, complementing traditional medical education.
Abstract:
An epidemic of an infectious disease such as COVID-19 is often a source of emotional distress, even among those who have not been directly exposed to the disease. The period following the acute phase of the coronavirus epidemic and the mitigation measures will likely be hardest for medical professionals in terms of psychological impact. Bibliotherapy is a systematic intervention regarding the use of carefully selected reading materials in order to help persons to cope with stress and personal problems. This therapy can be used easily during the pandemic. The review of evidence shows that this kind of intervention can be helpful in educational and clinical contexts. During the crisis, it can be an alternative to video and film entertainment and a transition from serious medical journal clubs to a softer medical humanities experience. In this article, we summarized the historical background of bibliotherapy. We also proposed a reading list from different times, and cultures relating to pandemic, quarantine, symptoms, confinement, and social impacts (e.g., Camus, Moravia, London, Le Clezio etc.). Bibliotherapy can be a way for doctors and healthcare workers fighting on the frontline of the pandemic to find psychological support and for debriefing. Bibliotherapy can help individuals that need support for emotional distress during the pandemic to verbalize their feelings and emotions and identify new ways of addressing problems.
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