- The salutary effects of being otherish may even be visible in our writing. The psychologist James Pennebaker has been able to trace
gains in health to the words that people use in their journal entries. “The writings of those whose health improved showed a high rate of
the use of I-words on one occasion and then high rates of the use of other pronouns on the next occasion, and then switching back and
forth in subsequent writings,” Pennebaker explains in The Secret Life of Pronouns, such that “healthy people say something about their
own thoughts and feelings in one instance and then explore what is happening with other people before writing about themselves again.”
The people whose journal entries are purely selfish or selfless, on the other hand, are much less likely to show health improvements.
michael s
(Michael S)
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