Bibliotherapy and the Pharmacology of Fiction
Jürgen Pieters
Mao Xu
Abstract：In this contribution,I want to read the famous scene in the Odyssey(book 8)in which the epic's hero is confronted at the court of the Phaeacians by a story of his own life as a primal scene of bibliotherapy.Taking my cue from earlier readings of the scene by Hannah Arendt and Adriana Cavarero,I want to relate Odysseus'response to the stories that are sung to him with the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler's concept of pharmacological thinking.Pharmacology,in Stiegler's view is a way of thinking that takes into account the simultaneously positive and negative effects of a phenomenon.In our specific case:while literature can work as medicine,it can also poison your mind.
Keywords：BibliotherapyOdysseyFictionNarrative identityPharmacology
Publication Date：2025-10-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-12-30(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 55-60 )