The use of poetry writing as psychotherapy is a specialized form of "bibliotherapy." When Leedy (1969) originally introduced poetry therapy as a discipline, he emphasized the reading of poems already in the literary canon. Almost immediately, however, psychotherapeutic work with poetry was extended to include the composition of poems. Whereas the reading of poetry stimulates empathy and liberates the imagination, the writing of poetry encourages insight through involvement in the creative process (Parker, 1969). Generally offered as group psychotherapy, poetry therapy has been used successfully with a number of special populations, including disturbed adolescents, college students, drug addicts, prison inmates, and the deaf. For a number of reasons, the use of poetry therapy has receded in recent years in spite of the widely recognized connection between poetry and psychopathology.
Like many forms of creative activity, poetry writing implies a break with the forms and conventions that usually dominate daily life. Consequently, the products and processes of poetry have been perceived as reflecting, or even involving, psychopathological states (Morrison, 1973). Poetic inspiration is often considered to be similar to psychopathological symptoms; both poetry and psychopathology imply an effort to resolve inner conflict. The poet and scholar Robert Graves has described poetic composition as pathological, and he has pointed to the relationship of poetry to the disciplines of shamanistic healing (1983). Graves, W.H. Auden, and others, have suggested that poems, by their very nature, function as therapy for the poet and for the public. Freud (1908) describes poetry as the artistic equivalent of daydreaming, a formal presentation of wish fulfillment that entertains by allowing the reader to enjoy his or her own phantasies in an acceptable way. Poetry's therapeutic value may come, then, from its ability to act as a safet...