Något ska hända, men vad? : Ledares och deltagares erfarenheter av biblioterapi

Sammanfattning: The point of this thesis is to determine what the effects are of bibliotherapy from both the views of the participants as well as the leaders. The basic idea of the thesis stems from several scientific articles and books on the subject matter from the past ten years that highlight the lack of empirical material regarding user intentions in bibliotherapy. The thesis is based on a deductive approach through these previous texts. The empirical material gathered through the use of seven semi-structured interviews with both leaders and users of bibliotherapy. The participants have primarily been involved with creative bibliotherapy in library settings as well as in churches. The qualitative data gathered through interviews were then analysed via several theories based on, among others, emotional response, aesthetic reading and catharsis.  It was found that while leaders initially were not in control of what impressions the potential participants initially had about bibliotherapy, or what use they thought it could bring them, they tried to mitigate it by being thorough and clear what regarding the goals about bibliotherapy were. However, it was generally concluded that whatever goals the participants originally had usually converged towards the end with the intended goals of the leaders of the various bibliotherapy schemes, whether they be personal development or emotional catharsis.