Experts on comparative literature and addiction specialists in cooperation: A bibliotherapy session in aftercare group therapy for alcohol dependence

This study is a joint project involving alcohol-addiction experts and experts on comparative literature, who selected and defined the literary texts that were employed. The research included long-term alcohol abstainers, members of aftercare supportive-therapy groups (n = 68). The research aimed to obtain some basic information about their reading habits, to test their responsiveness to various types of literary text displaying varying attitudes to alcohol consumption and to acquire the information necessary for a more intensive introduction of bibliotherapy into the therapy of alcohol dependence. The literary passages comprised two texts without reference to alcohol dependence (‘Der Panther’, Siddhartha), two displaying a critical attitude to alcoholism, by describing its negative aspects (John Barleycorn, L’Assommoir), and two without a critical attitude, i.e., with a positive approach to alcoholism (The Pickwick Papers, ‘In Taberna Quando Sumus’). The results showed a more positive response from the participants with higher education and established reading habits. The participants manifested a highly negative emotional response to the positive connotation of alcohol in the texts—an unexpected response after their long abstinence. Even short passages from literary works, appropriately and expertly differentiated, served to trigger or reinforce mentalisation-based reflective processes in addiction psychotherapy. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.