The therapeutic and scientific benefits of psychological poetry: a two-step study

ABSTRACTThe cornerstone of this study is a poem of psychological poetry concerning some religious teachings. The poem was composed by the author. In a first step, in order to confirm the therapeutic capacity of psychological poetry, an after-death letter regarding a rabbi is presented. In a second step, psychological poetry’s ability as a scientific tool is tested through a study of the relationship between religion and happiness. Here, religion is represented by some religious teachings of a luminary rabbi as they are understood by the author. Happiness is represented by research on Positive Psychology (PP). More specifically, the values of the religious teachings found in the poem are examined and compared to the scientifically established characteristics assigned to happiness. A new method of comparison is applied and allows us to identify and validate the presence of similarities between the two variables. The results obtained in both steps are positive.KEYWORDS: Clinical psychologycounsellingeducationmethodologypoetrypositive psychologyreligion Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).