Dunk Your Biscuit Horizontally
Extract:
James Pennebaker, professor of psychology at University of Texas, has over the years asked hundreds of people to try writing therapy. That therapy consisted of 15 to 30 minutes of writing a day over the course of three to five consecutive days. Participants had to write about their deepest feelings and most painful memories. There was no commentary on the texts; they were just writing for themselves.
For every experiment Pennebaker also asked a control group to write about neutral subjects, for example their plans for the day. This way the professor showed how well the emotional writing therapy worked – participants felt better afterwards. Unemployed people who put their soul’s torments down on paper got a job more quickly than those without work who wrote about neutral subjects. Lovers who had written their troubles away stayed together longer than those who wrote about everyday things. Students who poured their emotions out on paper got higher grades than students who gave a business-like run down of their daily activities.
