"Can Reading Make You Happier?"

"We draw on the same brain networks when we’re reading stories and when we’re trying to guess at another person’s feelings."

Bibliotherapy is a very broad term for the ancient practice of encouraging reading for therapeutic effect. The first use of the term is usually dated to a jaunty 1916 article in The Atlantic Monthly, “A Literary Clinic.” In it, the author describes stumbling upon a “bibliopathic institute” run by an acquaintance, Bagster, in the basement of his church, from where he dispenses reading recommendations with healing value. “Bibliotherapy is…a new science,” Bagster explains. “A book may be a stimulant or a sedative or an irritant or a soporific. The point is that it must do something to you, and you ought to know what it is. A book may be of the nature of a soothing syrup or it may be of the nature of a mustard plaster.” To a middle-aged client with “opinions partially ossified,” Bagster gives the following prescription: “You must read more novels. Not pleasant stories that make you forget yourself. They must be searching, drastic, stinging, relentless novels.” (George Bernard Shaw is at the top of the list.) Bagster is finally called away to deal with a patient who has “taken an overdose of war literature,” leaving the author to think about the books that “put new life into us and then set the life pulse strong but slow.”

Today, bibliotherapy takes many different forms, from literature courses run for prison inmates to reading circles for elderly people suffering from dementia. Sometimes it can simply mean one-on-one or group sessions for “lapsed” readers who want to find their way back to an enjoyment of books. Berthoud and her longtime friend and fellow bibliotherapist Susan Elderkin mostly practice “affective” bibliotherapy, advocating the restorative power of reading fiction. The two met at Cambridge University as undergraduates, more than twenty years ago, and bonded immediately over the shared contents of their bookshelves, in particular Italo Calvino’s novel “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller,” which is itself about the nature of reading. As their friendship developed, they began prescribing novels to cure each other’s ailments, such as a broken heart or career uncertainty. “When Suse was having a crisis about her profession—she wanted to be a writer, but was wondering if she could cope with the inevitable rejection—I gave her Don Marquis’s ‘Archy and Mehitabel’ poems,” Berthoud told me. “If Archy the cockroach could be so dedicated to his art as to jump on the typewriter keys in order to write his free-verse poems every night in the New York offices of the Evening Sun, then surely she should be prepared to suffer for her art, too.” Years later, Elderkin gave Berthoud,who wanted to figure out how to balance being a painter and a mother, Patrick Gale’s novel “Notes from an Exhibition,” about a successful but troubled female artist. (read the whole thing)

Happiness

How Are Ya?

Are you feeling alright today?    Even though we are beset with daily problems, are you pluggin' along with your eyes on the horizon?   Resilience is a wonderful character trait.

I've been hoping that Deborah would recant her exit strategy from this garden of happiness, and that Darcy would find occasion to plant some seeds here that will grow to full bloom. 

I was doing laps at the gym this morning, listening to a couple of 40-somethings chattering about how happy their high school lives were compared to their today lives.  I don't get it.  Maybe that's because I'm in a monogamous, committed relationship with the present, and having an affair with the past is off the menu.  You can't go back in time to find happiness in the present.

Anyhow.

If this doesn't put a smile on your face, you're in need of smile therapy.



Spoiler alert:  Count the Robertson cameos.

Choosing To Be Happy

WebMD published an abbreviated article about choosing to be happy.  Unhappily, the article seems to contradict itself in the first few paragraphs.  Compare this

Research has shown that your talent for happiness is, to a large degree, determined by your genes. Psychology professor David T. Lykken, author of Happiness: Its Nature and Nurture, says that "trying to be happier is like trying to be taller." We each have a "happiness set point," he argues, and move away from it only slightly

With this.

And yet, psychologists who study happiness -- including Lykken -- believe we can pursue happiness. We can do this by thwarting negative emotions such as pessimism, resentment, and anger. And we can foster positive emotions, such as empathy, serenity, and especially gratitude.

It's in your genes, got that?  Wait, no, it's up to us to pursue happiness because happiness can be found, seemingly without regard to your genes.   Or perhaps this is just professor David T. Lykken making himself happy by saying contradictory things about peoples' ability to be happy.  Whatever.  One more reason not to trust psychologists.

*Interruption for an aside.  Do you know what you never see parked in front of a psychologist's offices?  Horses and motorcycles.  End interruption*

The WebMD article lists seven steps a person can take in order to be happy, presuming that you are not now happy, and have some desire to become happy.  If you are happy being unhappy, none of this applies.

Don't Worry, Choose Happy

Cultivate Gratitude

Foster Forgiveness 

Counteract Negative Thoughts and Feelings 

Remember, Money Can't Buy Happiness 

Foster Friendship 

Engage in Meaningful Activities 

That list seems like a good start, but (at least for me) seems rather incomplete.  I'd add a few things to the list I learned along the way that contribute to my happiness.  Here's a start:

Be truthful in all things

Live simply and below your means, although everyone goes through times of having little or no means 

Be not afraid to love others openly and without reservation

Love God, hate Satan

Get out of debt, then stay out of debt 

Don't buy things you don't need in order to impress people you don't know 

Leave your home life at home and your work life at work 

Never drink alcohol at office parties, nor stay longer than 90 minutes

Turn everything off for one hour every evening to rest, read, meditate and reflect. 

Most of us here at Lem's are in our middle years and have learned a bit about happiness along the way.  What have you learned that you can add to the list?