bibliotherapy

American  

[bib-lee-oh-ther-uh-pee] / ˌbɪb li oʊˈθɛr ə pi /

noun

Psychiatry.

1. the use of reading as an ameliorative adjunct to therapy.

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Other Word Forms

• bibliotherapeutic adjective
• bibliotherapist noun

Etymology

Origin of bibliotherapy

First recorded in 1915–20; biblio- + therapy

Example Sentences

For less severe cases, Lewis suggests that parents start what psychologists call bibliotherapy, specifically a book called “Uncle Lightfoot Flip That Switch,” about a boy overcoming his fear of the dark.

From New York Times • Oct. 5, 2021

Of course, there’s also something beautiful and universalizing about bibliotherapy that perhaps makes it ripe for a sociopolitical moment where many feel more and more isolated.

From Slate • Mar. 27, 2018

Because literature is more open to interpretation than straightforward advice, bibliotherapy allows us to come to our own conclusions—or perhaps no conclusion at all.

From Slate • Mar. 27, 2018

Berthoud and Elderkin trace the method of bibliotherapy all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, “who inscribed above the entrance to a library in Thebes that this was a ‘healing place for the soul.’

From The New Yorker • Jun. 9, 2015

The young man had heard of none of these books prescribed by the practitioner of bibliotherapy.

From The Haunted Bookshop by Morley, Christopher