Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Writing Therapy

• Unit Code

  WRT3106

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

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Description

This unit explores the concept and practice of writing therapy and its relation to discourses of psychology, psychoanalysis, literature and history. Writing has sometimes been regarded as a symptom or cause of mental illness and pain as a source of creativity, but there is some evidence to suggest that writing improves physical and mental health, alleviates stress, and helps people to cope with grief and trauma. Students engage in and evaluate various kinds of writing therapy as well as competing ideas about creativity, illness, writing and memory. They also consider the related fields of testimonial life-writing and testimony studies that have arisen in response to major traumatic events of the twentieth century.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Describe some effects that life-stories bearing witness to injustice and persecution may have on individual storytellers and readers and modes of literary discourse.
2. Determine ways in which psychology, psychoanalysis, creativity and literature lend support to or contest the notion of writing as therapy.
3. Engage in the practice of writing therapy and write self-reflectively about the process.
4. Evaluate the potential benefits and limitations of writing as therapy.
5. Produce an academic essay based on research in the field of writing therapy.

Unit Content

1. Influential psychological and psychoanalytical theories (especially those of Jung and Freud).
2. Modes of writing (e.g. journal, letters, poetry, narrative, reflection etc).
3. Research in the field
4. Various texts (visual, literary, autobiographical)

Additional Learning Experience Information

On-campus: Seminars Off-campus: Blackboard

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Chavis, G.G. (2011). Poetry and story therapy: The healing power of creative expression. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Bolton. G., Field, V., & Thompson, K. (2010). Writing routes: A resource handbook of therapeutic writing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Bolton, G. (1999). The therapeutic potential of creative writing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Bolton, G, Field, V, & Thompson, K. (2006). Writing works: A resource handbook for therapeutic writing workshops and activities. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Frank, A. (1995). The wounded storyteller: Body, illness, and ethics. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Note: Seminal Reference.
• Sampson, F. (2004). Creative writing in health and social care. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Hunt, C., & Sampson, F. (1998). The self on the page: Theory and practice of creative writing in personal development. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Lepore, S. J., & Smyth, J.M. (2002). The writing cure: How expressive writing promotes health and emotional well-being. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Note: Seminal Reference.
• Murphy, F. (2006). Devotion. Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.
• Pennebaker, J. W. (1990). Opening up: The healing power of expressing emotions. New York: The Guildford Press. Note: Seminal Reference.
• Hunt, C. (2000). Therapeutic dimensions of autobiography in creative writing. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

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