The Science of Bibliotherapy and Its Roots in Arab and Islamic Heritage

Abstract

This article examines bibliotherapy, or reading therapy, as a field that uses reading, books, and literary texts to alleviate psychological and behavioral distress and to support cognitive and emotional healing. It begins by challenging the common view of reading as merely a hobby, presenting it instead as an essential intellectual and human practice connected to learning, self-formation, and awareness. The article outlines the modern development of bibliotherapy and its relationship to library services in hospitals and therapeutic institutions. It also discusses its methods and limits, including the careful selection of texts according to the reader’s condition, silent and oral reading, group discussion, and indirect guidance that avoids imposing fixed interpretations. The article then traces the roots of bibliotherapy in Arab and Islamic heritage, emphasizing the centrality of reading in the Qur’an, the cultural status of books in Islamic civilization, and the use of Arabic poetry as a means of emotional purification and relief from grief, anxiety, and alienation. It concludes that Arab and Islamic heritage offers a rich foundation for developing culturally grounded approaches to bibliotherapy, provided that psychological insight, literary awareness, and careful text selection are combined.