Lessons from literature for psychotherapy practice and research1

Insights from the study of literature can inform and clarify concepts to guide psychotherapy practice and research. The author offers instances from narrative fiction (Durrell's Alexandria Quartet) and poetry (Hopkins, Baudelaire) to illustrate how the formulation of experience in words that are evocative (vs. ordinary), original (vs. trite), and precise (vs. approximate) are able to capture attention, move the emotions, and challenge beliefs; and how linkages among experiences, vividly and precisely expressed, create and enhance narrative meaning–revealing the inherent relativity of individual meanings and the need to consider the aggregate of relevant perspectives in every interpersonal situation.