Healing Through Words: A Literary Analysis of BTS Lyrics Using Mental Health Narratives

Abstract

This study examines the lyrics of BTS, a globally recognized South Korean music group, with a focus on their narratives of trauma, emotional struggles, and psychological healing. The purpose of this study is to examine BTS's selected music using trauma theory as a conceptual framework. The focus will be directed towards how symbolic language, emotional metaphors, and poetic structures are deployed in these songs to express experiences of depression, anxiety, and self-loss, as well as recovery after trauma. The trauma theories used to ground the study will be Judith Herman, who outlines the clinical process of trauma recovery through multiple stages of psychological recovery, and Cathy Caruth, who theorized and developed traumatic experiences as a delayed, and often fragmented, expression of trauma. The study utilizes close reading, as part of qualitative literary analysis, and analyzes seven BTS songs, examining them as literary texts that describe psychological pain, while also implicitly guiding the listener symbolically, through the process of healing. These song lyrics have significance as literary texts because they not only narrate experiences of psychological suffering but also symbolically take their audience members through a physical and emotional healing lens. Responses from fans demonstrate the relevance of the lyrics to fans' lives and the emotional reach of' lyrics.  These responses have shown how the music of BTS greatly affects the fans' lives, as they too have trauma or mental health issues that are involved, and BTS provides a way to create a space together to heal. The study concludes that BTS's lyrics serve as a bridge between emotional articulation and recovery, demonstrating how popular music can function as both literary art and a tool for healing in the modern world.