Writing Therapy and the Search for Meaning: A Case History

The therapeutic process offered by logotherapy and existential analysis generally involves the use of Socratic dialogue and other conversational techniques. Nevertheless, self-writing represents a powerful therapeutic resource for facilitating self-knowledge and existential change. Autobiographical writing may help individuals address obstacles and attitudes toward, and responsibility for, their existence. Writing can help them to bring into focus and reconsider their dysfunctional frames of mind, find a new way of looking at themselves and their lives, and uncover new perspectives of hope and growth. Therapeutic writing is a transformative method that reflects the narrative structure of existence. During crises it may foster self-analysis, a search for meaning, and existential reframing. Ultimately, the focus is on the story that is being woven. This chapter describes the application of autobiographical, expressive, and fictional writing in a clinical case, which enabled a woman to turn the repetitive screenplay of her life into a healing story.