Sounding the Soul [Perfect Paperback]

Mary Lynn Kittelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996

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 corner from our noses.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book is an excellent analysis of the role of imagination in the spiritual life. It differs from much traditional Christian spirituality in considering personal images important in prayer, both as a place of contact with God and as a revelation of one's own motivations. Much of the book explicitly concerns uses of the imagination in ministry and the need for clergy to study their unconscious, but the book reads easily with at times almost poetic expression that makes it widely applicable. Written from a Jungian but not doctrinaire perspective, it presupposes no previous contact with Jungian thought. Highly recommended for most libraries.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mary Lynn Kittelson is a Jungian analyst in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota. She studied music and literature and has Masters degrees in English literature and human development. From 1982 to 1990, she trained as an analyst in Zurich, Switzerland, where teaching English as a foreign language and "seeing" clients in German sharpened her ear. In addition to her practice, the author teaches and lectures on dreams and image work, animals in our soul, the American psyche, auditory imagery, and other Jungian topics, especially the shadow and child as image, archetype and "reality." She likes to garden, experiment vocally, write, listen, and figure things out.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 297 pages
• Publisher: Daimon Verlag (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3856305548
• ISBN-13: 978-3856305543
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,147,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gentler, kinder book, September 3, 2001

By 

Susan G. Dunn "The EQ Coach" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sounding the Soul (Perfect Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom in one small volume, November 12, 2009

By 

L. Palchick "spirit dweller" (Kalamazoo, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The HEALING IMAGINATION, THE (Paperback)

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!