Why when we read a poem do we sometimes feel it speaks to our most hidden emotions, the ones we may not have known to call by name ourselves? And in reading a children's story we seem to return to the emotional situations we experienced in childhood, but this time from a different emotional position, one that holds within it both the children we were and the adults we became? And when we write - is a connection made to the most authentic and primitive parts of our soul?

These questions receive in-depth psychoanalytic-literary research in this pioneering book in the field of bibliotherapy that offers for the first time an examination of the healing power of literature by genre division.

The book traces the various ways in which the language of poetry, children's literature used to treat adults and creative writing in the treatment work on the mind, while linking each of these categories to a psychological depth structure which, according to the author, underlies them. This innovative characterization, based on the thought of analysts and philosophers such as Winnicott, Bowen, Ogden, Lacan, Kristeva, Wittgenstein and others, sharpens the unique therapeutic qualities of each of the categories discussed in the book, allowing therapists to make an informed choice between them. The movement between these categories may contribute to contact with different parts of the mind in patients, to processes of change and to a lively and creative therapeutic discourse.

Works by Dahlia Ravikovitch, Tirza Atar, Hedva Harkabi, Nurit Zarchi, Alejandra Piזarnik and others receive a fascinating analysis in light of the author's concepts regarding the encounter with poetry and literature in various mental states. The analysis of the interviews she conducted with Israeli writers and poets , including Yehudit Katzir, Esty G. Hayim, Ronny Someck and Nurit Zarchi , allows for a unique and rare understanding of the emotional processes that constitute writing. The book is a real celebration for lovers of literature, caregivers and those seeking to decipher the wonders of the healing effects of literature on the psyche.