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A review by morgan_blackledge
The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James W. Pennebaker
4.0
J.W Pennebaker's early research indicates that people who write about their traumatic experiences (i.e. journaling) tend to recover from psychological and co-occurring physiological symptoms faster and better than those who do not.
An important factor in Pennebaker's study was that participants were asked to write about their traumatic experiences, every day, for fifteen minutes, over the course of four days. Participants who wrote the same (or similar) story each time didn't get the beneficial effect. Participants who changed the way they told their story did.
According to Pennebaker's more recent computer assisted statistical analysis of word category usage in writing and speech samples, an individuals particular style of use of function words -in both writing and speech- is an important indicator (even predictor) of their psychological state, and social status.
FUNCTION WORDS ARE:
-Pronouns (such as I, you, they)
-Articles (a, an, the)
-Prepositions (to, of, for)
-Auxiliary verbs (is, am, have)
As a clinician, I am excited by Pennebaker's work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has prescribed journaling for decades. The literature has clearly demonstrated that journaling has therapeutic value, but has failed to describe how (exactly) journaling works. This research sheds light on the former, hopefully leading to more effective and targeted future interventions.
Additionally, Pennebaker's work may shed light on the active components of talk therapies such as Motivational Interviewing. Perhaps facilitating change talk has an even greater efficacy than previously understood.
A note of warning, this book is really hard to stay with at first, i.e. I kept drifting off and having to re-read large sections for the first few chapters. The going gets smoother though, so I strongly suggest pushing through. The bulk of the book reads nicely, and is full of really juicy and original stuff. Notice most (if not all) of the extremely negative reviews were from people that did not finish the book (an automatic disqualifier for any review).
I realize this is an incredibly dry review. This is no coincidence. The book is incredibly dry too. But that's not always a bad thing. Think white wine, or towels. If you endeavor to read this thing, don't expect a slack jawed page turner. But if you think you might be interested in exploring the intersection of statistics, linguistics and psychology, I highly recommend this book.
An important factor in Pennebaker's study was that participants were asked to write about their traumatic experiences, every day, for fifteen minutes, over the course of four days. Participants who wrote the same (or similar) story each time didn't get the beneficial effect. Participants who changed the way they told their story did.
According to Pennebaker's more recent computer assisted statistical analysis of word category usage in writing and speech samples, an individuals particular style of use of function words -in both writing and speech- is an important indicator (even predictor) of their psychological state, and social status.
FUNCTION WORDS ARE:
-Pronouns (such as I, you, they)
-Articles (a, an, the)
-Prepositions (to, of, for)
-Auxiliary verbs (is, am, have)
As a clinician, I am excited by Pennebaker's work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has prescribed journaling for decades. The literature has clearly demonstrated that journaling has therapeutic value, but has failed to describe how (exactly) journaling works. This research sheds light on the former, hopefully leading to more effective and targeted future interventions.
Additionally, Pennebaker's work may shed light on the active components of talk therapies such as Motivational Interviewing. Perhaps facilitating change talk has an even greater efficacy than previously understood.
A note of warning, this book is really hard to stay with at first, i.e. I kept drifting off and having to re-read large sections for the first few chapters. The going gets smoother though, so I strongly suggest pushing through. The bulk of the book reads nicely, and is full of really juicy and original stuff. Notice most (if not all) of the extremely negative reviews were from people that did not finish the book (an automatic disqualifier for any review).
I realize this is an incredibly dry review. This is no coincidence. The book is incredibly dry too. But that's not always a bad thing. Think white wine, or towels. If you endeavor to read this thing, don't expect a slack jawed page turner. But if you think you might be interested in exploring the intersection of statistics, linguistics and psychology, I highly recommend this book.