Conceptual Metaphors and Symbolic Modeling in Modern Bibliotherapy

Abstract

Literary bibliotherapy (or reflective bibliotherapy or “just” bibliotherapy) is presented as a potentially different approach to reading literary texts. It builds extensively on the knowledge and practices developed within other bibliotherapeutic traditions worldwide. While it shares many features with established approaches from countries such as Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom, it distinguishes itself through its specific theoretical grounding and methodological structure. Therefore, it may be more accurate to describe it as different rather than innovative, since it conceptually stands on the shoulders of its predecessors.

The terminology itself, whether one prefers the term “just” bibliotherapy, literary bibliotherapy or reflective bibliotherapy, remains open to discussion, inviting further reflection on how best to define this emerging bibliotherapeutic model.

The scientific approach of literary bibliotherapy is based on understanding and using emotions as a form of symbolical generalized communication media. The method focuses on the reflective reading of emotional conceptual metaphors (conemotional metaphors) in the text. In this way, readers can connect the events presented in the literary work with emotions they personally experience. At the same time, literary bibliotherapy uses the technique of symbolic modeling. In the process of analyzing conceptual metaphors within the text, the so-called technique of clean language is used. Symbolic modeling connects conceptual metaphors with the reader's emotions, which helps to determine the reader's metaphorical horizon. It functions as the reader's core belief regarding the presented and analyzed text. All of that is implemented in the therapeutic process through the MED cycle — a structured approach specifically developed for engaging with literature and grounded in cognitive psychotherapy.