Research Summary:  Why we use the phrase “Results Through Writing”

We offer this research summary to demonstrate a broad pragmatic approach.  We certainly do not claim to be expert in all of the research areas below!  Rather, we are aware of findings in these fields that may apply to our clients’ needs and goals.  Our chief aim is to bring the most effective and appropriate strategies and solutions to each project.  We are motivated by the potential power of guided writing to enhance the quality of individual lives, as well as to improve organizational performance.

On the homepage of Metaphorical Ink, we quote author Jeanette Winterson, “The writer is an instrument of transformation.”  We believe that Winterson means that in the process of narrating experience, the writer herself or himself is transformed, as well as meaning that writers throughout history have transformed other people, institutions, and situations.
The threads of evidence for why and how a reflective writing practice will boost important foundational qualities like self-awareness, problem-solving, resilience, and creativity come from a variety of fields and are applied in a variety of settings.  Writing is a protean skill; it can take many forms, some as simple as labeling images or making lists and some as complex as multi-perspectival accounts of causes and effects, as well as volumes of description, argument, and narrative on countless topics. 

Writing is often associated with the process of thinking.  Many, many authors, even scientific authors, have stated a version of the comment attributed to E. M. Forster, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”  The Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College bases all its programs on the principle that “writing [is] a catalyst for learning in all subjects.”  One researcher at least has even given considerable thought to the different effects of writing by hand or by machine.  Daniel Chandler’s very interesting article, “The Phenomenology of Writing by Hand,” proposes that we use writing for one of two purposes:  Planning or Discovery.  “Planners tend to think of writing primarily as a means of recording or communicating ideas which they already have clear in their mind; Discoverers tend to experience writing primarily as a way of ‘discovering’ what they want to say” (65).  Chandler quotes a writer who says, “It is the act of writing that produces the discoveries.”  Was writing a beloved subject in your school?  Probably not, but that does not diminish its value as a strategy for discovery, self-improvement, career satisfaction, and organizational performance gains.  We can begin again, and provide a more positive engagement with the potential of writing.

Neurologist Alice Flaherty comments on the powerful drive to write, “Using writing to give cognitive meaning to events may parallel an equally deep human need, the need to give emotional meaning to an existence that is opaque” (220). 

Psychologist Dean Simonton proposes a model that links creativity, motivation, and productivity.  An individual uses divergent thinking to generate multiple ideas, weeds out many, and tests the concepts likely to succeed.  The process is iterative and self-motivating.  Writing may be integral in several phases, such as generating divergent ideas and testing competing solutions.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow published “A Theory Of Human Motivation” in the journal Psychological Review.  Maslow continued to develop his argument that after our physical needs and safety needs are met, we have needs for belonging, love, and esteem.  If all of these are met, some persons will continue to strive to meet other needs, grouped by Maslow under the heading, “self-actualization.”  Maslow used as his models high-achieving figures from a variety of fields.  In persons who strive for self actualization we may observe a strong desire to understand the self and others, a drive toward creativity, the urge to push beyond what is easily achieved to reach one’s potential, a strong inclination to focus on problem-solving, and a sense of empathy for others.  Reflective writing is a very common means to further the drive toward self-actualization.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a structured method of psychotherapy where clients identify events, thoughts and beliefs, and emotions that may impact their behavior.  Strategies may include written exercises as well as structured conversations with a practitioner and various strategies to restore calm and reduce anxiety.  Recently, studies have shown that “CBT has the potential to modify the dysfunctional neural circuitry associated with anxiety disorders . . .  [and that] the changes made at the mind level . .. are able to functionally ‘rewire’ the brain.”  (Paquette et al, NeuroImage 18 (2003)).

Sometimes viewed as related to cognitive-behavioral therapy (but also cousin to religion, ethics, and philosophy) is research on positive psychology or optimism.  Martin Seligman is often cited as the founder of this branch of research, although he acknowledges “pioneering work by Rogers . .. Maslow. . . Erickson” (2005, p. 410) and others.  The basic premise of positive psychology is that “being happier seems to have positive long-term effects not just on well-being but also on health and life span” (Max, 49).  By “happiness,” Seligman and others are “referring jointly to positive emotion, engagement, and meaning” (2005, p. 413).  Research is also underway linking the quality of hopefulness to effectiveness as an organizational leader.  Positive psychologists recommend specific interventions to increase optimism.  Guided writing is one of the strategies used for interventions.

Resilience, defined by Cicchetti and Blender as “the attainment of unexpected competence despite significant adversity,” is an interdisciplinary concept with many implications for employment practices and for personal development efforts.  Dennis Charney, M.D., Ph.D., dean of research and professor of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine has stated in a recent issue of Psychiatric News (January 19, 2007) that “resilience can be developed through focused training and cognitive-behavioral therapy to form a bulwark against stressful events.”  In that article, Charney is quoted on the value of developing ten personal qualities to foster resilience, including optimism, cognitive flexibility, altruism, a sense of humor and others.

One of my former colleagues at the Penn State College of Medicine, Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D., GNP, discusses her own research on the uses of therapeutic writing in “Using Structured Writing Experiences to Promote Mental Health,” in the February 2001 issue of the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing.  Dellasega stresses the importance of identifying goals before selecting a therapeutic writing intervention:  “writing can address a number of different mental health needs, including coping with repressed emotions, promoting increased insight into personal coping styles, learning new ways to express feelings and relate to others, improving self-esteem, and conducting a life review” (20-21).

James W. Pennebaker is associated with a number of studies related to the effects of disclosure writing (see bibliography below).  Pennebaker summarizes in a 2003 article, “having people write or talk about emotional upheavals in the laboratory could ultimately affect their physical health.  Across a large number of studies, participants who wrote about traumatic experiences for 3-5 days for 15-20 minutes per day evidenced better health than controls who were asked to write about superficial topics.  These findings have been replicated across an impressive number of labs, cultures, and contexts” (“Words of Wisdom” 291).  In a study with Keith J. Petrie and Roger J. Booth, Pennebaker extended this thesis to conclude that “The limited data available on this issue suggest that emotional expression may have important links with the functioning of the immune system.”  Similar to what Flaherty suggests above, Petrie, Booth, and Pennebaker find that health improvements “may reflect more efficient cognitive processing of a trauma or may come about as the person integrates and makes a more coherent construction of the emotional components of the event.”

Brain fitness programs are springing up on the internet in response to research that shows our brains can be strengthened with mental calisthenics.  The New York Times reports that organizations like AARP and the Alzheimer’s Association are taking action.  Also, that health insurers are “pushing brain health” (Belluck, A1).  Many of the websites and print materials point to the fact that, in addition to good nutrition and daily physical exercise, we need to keep on learning through our lifespan and that means taking on new challenges.  A guided writing program can incorporate many of the strategies recommended as research in the field of brain fitness expands.

Concept mapping is a strategy that represents knowledge or experience in a graphical manner, usually with bubbles or boxes holding simplified notions that are related to other notions in additional boxes or bubbles (or clouds or any shape).  The relationships are then indicated by solid, dashed, dotted or colored lines and/or arrows.  This strategy may aid in reflection on life experience, discovery of meaning, integrating diverse experiences, finding coherence in decision-making and problem solving, and many other applications.  Concept mapping is one of many strategies used in guided writing workshops.  Joseph D. Novak, commonly credited as a key proponent of this strategy, has said that “Meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structures” (www.ericdigests.org).

Communication skills and leadership skills are a focus of almost all professional development programs.  Here is a new take on a combination of the two.  A strategy pioneered by Robert Kegan at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and his colleague Lisa Laskow relates to specific languages of transformation.  For example, in their book, Seven Languages for Transformation:  How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, Kegan and Laskow demonstrate how to guide a transformation from “the language of complaint to the language of commitment, from the language of blame to the language of personal responsibility,” and five additional conversions that begin with language, but result in deeper progress, even to the level of personal and organizational values.  Their strategies include guided writing, discussion, and structured concept development.  It is brilliantly simple and, yes, transformative!

Jonah Lehrer, a young Rhodes scholar and researcher, recently published his first book, Proust was a Neuroscientist (Houghton Mifflin), to explore the thesis that literary authors came independently to many of the conclusions we are now hearing from leading edge brain scientists.  His example of Marcel Proust and findings on triggers of memory is but one that doesn’t surprise many who read widely in both science and literature.  For example, Virginia Woolf, a very self-aware and prolific author despite much turmoil in her life, writes,  “The shock receiving capacity is what makes me a writer. . . . I make it real by putting it into words.  It is only by putting it into words that I make it whole;  this wholeness means that it has lost its power to hurt me; it gives me, perhaps because by doing so I take away the pain, a great delight to put the severed parts together.  Perhaps this is the strongest pleasure known to me.  It is the rapture I get when in writing I seem to be discovering what belongs to what.”  Anais Nin has said that “The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”

American philosopher and educator, John Dewey, offers many, many practical maxims for effective learning across the lifespan.  In his classic text, Experience and Education, he summarizes the features of scientific method that are integral to education.  One of these crucial features is reflection:  “To reflect is to look back over what has been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with further experiences.  It is the heart of intellectual organization and of the disciplined mind” (87). 

We offer this research summary to demonstrate a broad pragmatic approach.  We certainly do not claim to be expert in all of the research areas above!  Rather, we are aware of findings in the above fields that may apply to our clients’ needs and goals.  Our chief aim is to bring the most effective and appropriate strategies and solutions to each project.  We are motivated by the potential power of guided writing to enhance the quality of individual lives, as well as to improve organizational performance.

Specific topics for workshops where we apply diverse strategies based on research include:  Relieving Stress; Resilience; Transforming Complaints Into Commitments ( cf. Kegan and Laskow); Optimism; Understanding Habits and Habits of Understanding; Confidence; Learning and Change; Creativity; Achieving Potential; Balancing Life and Work; Divergent Thinking, and many more.

Research on Writing Results

Bibliography

Beluck, Pam. “As Minds Age, What’s Next?  Brain Calisthenics,” The New York Times, December 27, 2006.

Bolton, Gillie.  The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing.  London and Philadelphia:  Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1999.

Chandler, Daniel.  “The Phenomenology of Writing by Hand.”  Intelligent Tutoring Media 3 (2/3) May/August 1992, p. 65-74.

Charney, Dennis, M.D., Ph.D. quoted in Milne

Cicchetti, D. and Blender, JA, “A Multiple-Levels-of-Analysis Perspective on Resilience,” Annals of the New York Academy of Science, December 2006, 248-258.

Dellasega, Cheryl A.  “Using Structured Writing Experiences to Promote Mental Health,” Journal of Psychosocial Nursing, February 2001, 14-23.

Dewey, John.  Experience and Education.  New York:  Collier MacMillan Publishers, 1938.

Elbow, Peter.  Writing Without Teachers.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1973.  (Ann Pangborn)

Flaherty, Alice W. The Midnight Disease:  The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain.

Hunt, Celia and Fiona Sampson, Eds.  The Self on the Page:  Theory and Practice of Creative Writing in Personal Development.  London and Philadelphia:  Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Lehrer, Jonah.  Proust Was A Neuroscientist.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

Maslow, Abraham.  The Farther Reaches of Human Nature.  New York: Viking, 1971.  (see also www.maslow.com)

Max, D. T. “Happiness 101,”  The New York Times Magazine, January 7, 2007.

Milne, David, “People Can Learn Markers on Road to Resilience,”  Psychiatric News, Volume 42, Number 2, page 5.  January 19, 2007.

Paquette, Vincent et al.  “Change the mind and you change the brain’:  effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on the neural correlates of spider phobia,’”  NeuroImage 18 (2003).

Pennebaker, James W.  “Telling Stories:  The Health Benefits of Narrative,”  Literature and Medicine, Volume 19, Number 1, Spring 2000, pp. 3-18.

Pennebaker, James W.  “Theories, Therapies, and Taxpayers:  On the Complexities of the Expressive Writing Paradigm,”  Clinical Psychology:  Science and Practice 11 (2), 138-142.

Pennebaker, James W.  “Words of Wisdom:  Language Use Over the Life Span,”  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  2003, vol. 85, No. 2.  291-301.

Pennebaker, James W.  Opening Up:  The Healing Power of Confiding in Others.  New York:  William Morrow and Company, 1990.

Petrie, Keith J., Roger J. Booth, and James W. Pennebaker.  “The Immunological Effects of Thought Suppression,”  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  November 1998 Vol. 75, No. 5, 1264-1272.

Philips, Deborah, Debra Penman, and Liz Linington.  Writing Well:  Creative Writing and Mental Health.  London and Philadelphia:  Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Progoff, Ira.  At a Journal Workshop.  New York:  Dialogue House Library, 1975

Pennebaker, James W. Opening Up:  The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions.  New York, London:  The Guilford Press, 1990.

Seligman, Martin E. P. and Tracy A. Steen, Nasook Park, Christopher Peterson.  “Positive Psychology Progress:  Empirical Validation of Interventions,”  American Psychologist, Vol. 60, No. 5, 410-421.

Simonton, D.K.  Origins of Genius:  Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1999.  (noted in Flaherty, p. 52).