The Listening Book: How to Create a World of Rich Connections and Surprising Growth by Actually Hearing Each Other

Satisfying, secure connection with others depends heavily on how well we listen to each other and respond to what we’ve heard. The Listening Book lays bare the key elements of both deeply attuned and badly misattuned listening in vivid scenes of real-life interactions that capture the emotional impact and give the reader an illuminating aha experience. Added to that is a mind-opening account of psychological processes and principles that normally operate from outside of awareness, showing how skillful listening can reveal those dynamics. Beyond even that, such listening can produce interactions that unlock lifelong emotional conditioning to yield liberating change through one of the brain’s most remarkable processes, which neuroscientists call memory reconsolidation. Whether read solo, with a partner, or in a reading group, The Listening Book is for everyone who yearns for deeper emotional connection and closeness, everyone who is at a loss to understand what is interfering, and everyone who is fascinated by the subtle and manifold factors involved in interpersonal communication.