Editorial: Reading, literature, and psychology in action

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Philip Davis¹  Rhiannon Corcoran²  Josie Billington³  Arthur Frank⁴ 

[1]Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society, University of Liverpool

[2]Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Liverpool

[3]English Department, School of the Arts, University of Liverpool

[4]Department of Sociology, University of Calgary

关键词: Literature;    Psychology;    reading therapy;    Mental Health;    Bibliotherapy;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1068030

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

In asserting that the reading of literature is psychology in action we mean many things: from seeing individuals and groups work through complex social scenarios as they consider and contemplate feelings, memories and problems, and weigh up options and alternatives within the comfort of their own minds; to watching the benefit that mastering “hard” texts brings to those who previously believed they could not do so. The gaining of what we might easily call “confidence,” the movement from passivity to mental action, has the power to catalyze change beyond the literary, into the taking of life opportunities. Thus, we propose that the practice of shared reading in groups where there is opportunity to learn about other minds, to assess and contrast your thoughts and feelings to those of others provides a live and explicit demonstration of minds interacting amid a shared mission and with a combined purpose. A real showcasing of the skill that psychologists call “Theory of Mind,” first introduced by Premack and Woodruff (1978). In shared reading settings there is both the opportunity to represent several other's cognitive and emotional states and to judge your responses against those of others with a view to appraising or re-appraising them. With several authors now interested in the role that reading fiction can play in honing socio-cognitive and empathic skills (e.g., Mar et al., 2006; Kidd and Castano, 2013), the door to the use of fiction as an option for those whose theory of mind skills are argued to be compromised is open.

【 授权许可】

CC BY