ABSTRACT
B ibliotherapy is one of an enormous range of methods for helping human beings in distress. The word itself suggests a specific therapeutic modality (as in ‘art therapy’ ‘occupational therapy’ or ‘dance therapy’—all of which were developed specifically to meet the needs of patients perceived to be wholly or partly beyond the reach of mainstream psychotherapeutic methods). In fact, bibliotherapy has not remotely established its claim to such status, and may never do so, but it still has a direct, though peripheral, relationship to the whole field of psychotherapy.
