Poetess Library

A study conducted by Italian researchers, Giorgio Brunello, Piero Esposito, Lorenzo Rocco, and Sergio Scicchitano, wrote a paper from a discussion paper series, it was called “Do Classical Studies Open Your Mind?” Let’s be specific with this, the paper goes through if classical studies affect students, including on mental health. In this study the four researchers state the conclusion that those with classical education are more likely to graduate from college but are more neurotic, showing signs of stress, anxiety, depression, or other concerning mental health disorders. So this begs the question, does classical literature affect happiness negatively in individuals?

Well in regards to this study, Spencer McDaniel on her website, Tales of Times Forgotten, in the article “Does Classical Studies Really Make People Neurotic and Unhappy?”, addresses this study and the problems with it, “The first problem with this study is that, for it to assess the impact of studying classics on person’s personality, it would need to have one group of students…The second problem with the study is that which students chose the Liceo Classico and which ones chose the liceo scientifico was not random. This means that non-random selection factors may be influencing the study’s findings…The third problem with the study is that it makes sweeping claims about classical studies in general, even though it only examined one specific kind of classical studies that occurs within one specific social and cultural context.” The entire article explains the subject more. So knowing the problem with this study, you can conclude that this study doesn’t mean anything when coming to a rightful conclusion of whether or not studying classical literature has any effect on students neurologically on mental health disorders. When determining the question of whether or not classical literature affects students’ mental health, it’s not helpful, it’s pretty inconsistent, and the study methods aren’t the best. Considering this was the main source stating that Classical studies affect people’s mental health and makes them unhappy, we can conclude that this statement might not be one hundred percent accurate. 

So take this question to another viewpoint, an article by Philip Davis, a retired professor of Literature and Psychology from the University of Liverpool, titled, “What is “normal” anyway? How reading changes our thinking about mental health” speaks about the impact of reading on our mental health. He states, “Literature has us think differently, with a subtler emotional lexicon.” In many studies before these two, there had been many mentions of literature making an impact on mental health and health in general. Even the Yale University School of Public Health said that compared to non-book readers, book readers have a 4-month advantage at the point of 80% survival. And though that’s not mental health, nor expressed through classical literature, you can see that reading makes a big impact on health already. But that doesn’t necessarily answer the question, so what does? 

While Philip Davis, the professor mentioned before answered this question already, in another study titled, “Editorial: Reading, literature, and Psychology in Action” and another study called “Five studies evaluating the impact on mental health and mood of recalling, reading, and discussing fiction” by James Carney give us the answer to this question. James Carney states, “The claim that exposure to literature can have a positive impact on mental well-being has been visible for some time now. ‘Creative bibliotherapy’, as this view has come to be known, argues that the cognitive effects engendered by poetry, fiction, and drama may be of value in treating mental health conditions. In one formulation, ‘attentive immersion in great literature can help relieve, restore, and reinvigorate the troubled mind–and can play a part in relieving stress and anxiety, as well as other troubled states of mind.” Literature is being used as therapy, using books to improve one’s happiness and mental health by giving them reading through poetry, fiction, and classics. Somewhat of an answer to the question of whether classics can impact somebody mentally, which can be positively not negatively expressed in this study. In the study conducted by Philip Davis, he states in his introduction to the study,

Further, the nature of literacy fiction simulates a life that many readers may never have the opportunity to experience directly. Other worlds are uncovered with new thoughts and feelings released by them, encouraging mental flexibility and more open emotional consideration of life events, yours and others, generally. This has been one finding of the research conducted by the Center for Reading Literature and Society, a collaboration of English literature specialists, psychologists, and medical academics and practitioners at the University of Liverpool, researching the effects on the human psyche of reading serious literature…this release of new thoughts and the broadening of emotional responses to life’s experiences as well the invaluable opportunity to reason analogously (in “as if” mode) have been witnessed time and again in action during reading groups involving people with common mental health, substance use issues, chronic and dementia for example,

The classical literature, or just the literature that is being studied and read is shown to help with the mental health of individuals shown through group sessions and therapy that helps with mental health not that makes it worse. Classical literature and literature are not harming anybody’s mental health, it’s improving it, not only through advancing learning, promoting reading, and promoting a healthy brain, but also showing to help with mental health issues through helping with empathy, and affecting the human psyche, and bibliotherapy that is helping with neurotic issues.