Pennebaker J W, Seagal J D
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 78712, USA.
J Clin Psychol. 1999 Oct;55(10):1243-54. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(199910)55:10<1243::AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-N.
Writing about important personal experiences in an emotional way for as little as 15 minutes over the course of three days brings about improvements in mental and physical health. This finding has been replicated across age, gender, culture, social class, and personality type. Using a text-analysis computer program, it was discovered that those who benefit maximally from writing tend to use a high number of positive-emotion words, a moderate amount of negative-emotion words, and increase their use of cognitive words over the days of writing. These findings suggest that the formation of a narrative is critical and is an indicator of good mental and physical health. Ongoing studies suggest that writing serves the function of organizing complex emotional experiences. Implications for these findings for psychotherapy are briefly discussed.
在三天的时间里，以情感方式写下重要的个人经历，哪怕每天只写15分钟，也能改善身心健康。这一发现已在不同年龄、性别、文化、社会阶层和性格类型的人群中得到验证。通过使用文本分析计算机程序发现，那些从写作中受益最大的人往往会大量使用积极情绪词汇，适度使用消极情绪词汇，并且在写作过程中逐渐增加认知词汇的使用。这些发现表明，构建一个故事至关重要，它是身心健康良好的一个指标。正在进行的研究表明，写作具有组织复杂情感体验的功能。本文简要讨论了这些发现对心理治疗的启示。
