For the Greeks, libraries were spaces that healed the soul, literature and poetry can certainly be a therapeutic tool to overcome depression, because a book is much more than a refuge, this atmosphere of letters and inspiring worlds is a discovery, a channel capable of awakening us, allowing us to face, discover and even be reborn more courageously.
Literature alone will not allow a person to overcome depression, this is something that must be clear from the beginning, such disorders, as we already know, still require a multidisciplinary approach, proper therapy, counseling, medications, a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are the ideal approaches to generating progress and improvement.
- “I looked for tranquility everywhere and found her sitting only in a secluded corner.
- With a book in her hands.
- “Thomas De Kempis?.
However, the ancient Greeks were not wrong when they saw the books as tools of healing, as was also observed in several British hospitals during World War I. Many soldiers with traumatic stress have found more than comforting relief when doctors and nurses have provided them with a library. specially selected for them.
When our interior is wounded, literature and poetry can become valuable agents of reconstruction, acting as allies of change, they are environments that propel us towards healing, leading us to regain calm when the depressed mind keeps up with chaos. tranquility and catalyst for well-being.
Matt Haig is a British writer who has succeeded with a book with a catchy title: “Reasons to Stay Alive”. In this article, you discuss what it means to spend several years with depression. Far from being a self-help book, The author wants to clarify a simple aspect of it: everyone must be able to find their own strategy, their reason for living to get away from the precipice, their motivation to be reborn, their key to closing the door to depression. books, especially the fictional narrative.
Matt Haig has come to the same conclusion as many psychologists and psychiatrists, although these professionals generally go a little further. In addition to fictional books, poetry is also an exceptional therapeutic tool for many patients with this psychological disorder.
Let’s see what the reasons for these conclusions are, why are literature and poetry so useful for our psychological well-being?
Reading fiction books makes us more human. This phrase may seem a little exaggerated because who does not remember that he is already, par excellence, a thoughtful and sensitive human being?People suffering from depression are captive in a space where they don’t always do. have control over what they think. Everything they feel is always harmful, negative and self-destructive.
A fictional book offers the opportunity to reflect on other perspectives, spread optimism, absorb new goals, dreams and relationships of trust.
“If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up like a punch in the head, why are we reading it?To make us happy? Oh, my God, we’d be happy too if we didn’t have books, and we could, if necessary, write books that would make us happy. Should it be a book like an ice cream breaker in the inner icy sea?
? Kafka, from a letter written to Oskar Pollak (1904)?
They say the oldest poetic testimony in our history goes back more than 4,300 years. It is an ode to the goddess Inana and is the work of Enheduanna, an Akkadian poet. Why did we start this literary style?What was human beings looking for with this word game, these rhymes, stanzas and beautiful compositions?
According to an article by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, this literary style allows a deeper definition of emotions and this goes further: in a life as difficult as that around us so often, we need a type of language capable of facing this difficulty, simplifying it, playing with it, challenging it, being the reservoir. Emotions, your catharsis, your daily alchemy?
Although we often say that literature and poetry are our refuge, they are actually our way out, they are a private window to spy on the world, they are this door through which we go fortified, because no one isolates themselves by reading a book, it actually rebuilds itself. He’s discovering other possibilities, he’s reorganizing ideas, including new ones, and destroying others.
No one comes out unscathed after reading a novel, after reading a poem, something changes in us, something heals us and wakes us up to look at us and look at the world in another way, in a healthier and wiser way. Therefore, we cannot underestimate the power of literature and poetry to promote improvement in depressive processes, they can be excellent allies.