Kan doktorn skriva ut en bok åt mig? En studie om läsbiblioterapins effekt på det psykiska välmåendet hos sex sjukskrivna kvinnor

Abstract

This thesis focuses on an empirical study of six women’s experiences of the reading bibliotherapeutic method while on sick leave, and its effects on their psychological well-being, and it will also discuss questions concerning the choice of literature. The women in question suffered from quite different diseases as aneurysm in the brain, burnout depression, ALS, cancer and posttraumatic stress disorder. They all have in common that they like to read fiction, but to differed extent. It was also clear that their different diseases affected their abilities, even if they wanted to read, the disease or the medication made it difficult to manage. Tradionally it has been customary to recommend classical literature and so-called quality literature in studies of bibliotherapy, but in some recently made Swedish studies the contrary appears, as if it depends more on the individual readers and how they read. This is also the conlusion of my study, the important thing seems to be what the reader gets out of the book, not what sort of literature which has been chosen. It seems to be more about how you read and what the reading does to you. Grounded theory has been used as a method for the analysis and the result gives a picture of increasing emotion while reading literature as bibliotherapy. This seems to have a positive effect on the surveyed women’s psychological well-being. Louise Rosenblatt’s theory that each reader brings individual background knowledge, beliefs, and context into the reading act as an active reader, has been the approach I have been using. Rita Felski’s studies about how we read and Leena Sippola’s description about what happens emotionally with your psychological well-being when reading, has also been important for this work.