The Uses of Writing in Psychotherapy

Abstract

Tracing the uses of writing in psychotherapy over the last half century, we find that the earliest systematic practices were governed largely by a psychoanalytic medical model. Other, newer schools have challenged the deficiency-oriented Freudian perspective and view writing as an expressive art, integral to healthy and creative human development. Consonant with this trend, the humanistic psychologies gathered adherents who used writing as a potent instrument of growth and as a vehicle for total life development. Apart from the popular poetry therapy movement, other more recent practices have been developed such as correspondence, diary and journal keeping, and other more cognitive writing activities. The literature presently documents the principal use of writing as an ancillary technique enhancing the more conventional therapies. However, its capacity to help people uncover new levels of self-awareness and its promise in terms of self-help offer unique potential for inner human exploration.