Sounding the Soul: The Art of Listening

by Mary Lynn Kittelson

In this delightful, phenomenological account, Kittelson writes in lively pursuit of the language of hearing, an ode to the persistent primacy of the ear. It's right here, she says, just around the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3856305548
• ISBN13: 9783856305543
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Daimon
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Wisdom in one small volume

I love this book! I want to read each chapter over and over again because there is so much to it. It is deeply wise and beautifully written, bringing spirituality and psychology to bear on the importance of the imagination. It is a must read!

A gentler, kinder book

I'm a personal coach and I do most of my work on the phone. How this book helped me as I soothe, challenge, question, and grope to learn of the person on the other end of the line and what will serve them best.Orpheus is on the cover. Ah, Orpheus, whose golden voice could move rock, change the course of streams.This book, lyrical and profound, is an ode to sound, and to listening. "The universe is more like music than like matter," said physicist Donald Hatch Andrews. I know that I've been hurt by sound, by harsh voices and criticism, and that I've been healed by sound, by soothing tones and kind words. Dr. Kittelson explained to me how and why.This book explains in detail the mechanics of sound production and reception -- the scientific explanations -- and discusses this in light of "the talking cure," but it is at the same time almost mystical, for this is the stuff of deep speaking and profound listening. "The client uses the therapist's ways of listening," Kittelson says, "to learn to hear himself." "In both music and psychotherapy," she continues, "timeliness is of the essence. It is a matter of timing, a matter of tact." Resonant communication takes care and time and space, and while the client sets the basic pace, the therapist exerts some influence too, in the musical duet.Auditory processes, she says, have a special resonance in early work. Auditory experience is primary in infancy -- it is a time before sight matters when sound, movement and skin contact are most important. "In early work," she says, "the client's experience of the therapist's voice is highly influential. Soemtimes it will be the most basic mode of attunement."This is a beautifully written book about a profound subject. "I call to you/I call to you/But I don't call soft enough" said L. Cohen in "There Ain't No Cure for Love," and Kittelson, a Jungian analyst, calls softly indeed. She "likes to figure things out," it says on the back of the book. She's my kind of person. What a gentle soul. What a tender voice. Read this book. You'll be touched, and, like a tuning fork, you will resonate.