Customer Reviews

Emotion, Disclosure, and Health

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The book is divided into an introduction and three other parts: Cognitive Processes in Inhibiting and Disclosing; Emotions, Expressivenss and Psychosomatics; and Clinical and Social Dimensions of Disclosure.

Researchers and theorists describe their own work. Pennebaker -- preeminent scientist in the field -- provides an introductory overview. Social (and other) psychologists will recognize the names of chapter authors: William B. Stiles ("Is It Psychotherapeutic to Disclose?"), Daniel Wegner ("From Secrecy to Psychopathology"), Thomos Borkovec ("Disclosure and Worry"), and others.

This is a cutting-edge area in psychology and here is the lowdown from the field. Detailed descriptions of the experiments and observational studies that have been done on the relationship between self-disclosure (expressive writing, talking, etc.) and one's emotional and physical health (as measured by self-report of symptoms, visits to health clinic, cellular immune activity, etc.). Here is what's really behind the scenes of those superficial quotes you see in magazines these days that say "writing about your problems may make you healthier!"

Highly recommended. A fascinating field.