Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain (Third Edition)
The book-length account of expressive writing by the two researchers who built the field - Pennebaker ran the original 1986 experiment, Smyth ran the 1998 meta-analysis. It explains the protocol, what the evidence supports, and where writing does not help.
Written by the two people whose names appear on most of the studies in this library.
James Pennebaker ran the 1986 experiment that created the expressive writing paradigm. Joshua Smyth ran the 1998 meta-analysis that established it, and later the 2018 randomised trial of positive affect journaling. This is their joint account, in its third edition.
It covers the actual protocol - what to write about, for how long, and over how many days - and it is unusually candid for a trade book about where writing does not help, which is the reason we point people to it.
Read the effect size elsewhere. For the current best estimate, use Frattaroli’s 2006 random-effects meta-analysis of 146 randomised studies: r = .075. Books by researchers about their own work are for understanding the mechanism and the method; meta-analyses are for the magnitude.
No affiliation, no commercial relationship.
It is a trade book by researchers describing their own field, which tends toward a generous reading of the evidence. It predates nothing important, but the current best estimate of the effect - Frattaroli's r = .075 across 146 randomised studies - is smaller than a reader might infer. A book is not evidence and we never cite it as such.
Articles citing this book
Summarized by Tiago Martins · Last updated: · How we write these
