Art of Listening
by Erich Fromm

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Book Reviews of Art of Listening

Book Review: A request to (...) listen
Summary: 5 Stars

Some have critisized Fromm for being too analytical, and putting too much emphasis on rationality and abstract conceptualizing and too little on measurable evidence, laboratory experiments, statistics and the like. But to me this seems to miss the point. Our reasoning does have limitations due to our social upbringing, our character and idiosyncrasy, our logical limitations and discrepancies vis a vis the complexity of the world, etc. But being aware of these limitations and being actively involved in examining them, evaluating them, and in a sense knowing their limitations does give us the right to make estimates and to develop hypothetical constructs that might or might not reflect reality more or less accurately. Social Science is an art, and as any art it is an imperfect endeavour. Logical positivism has been written off in the annals of history for good. For me the most important test for a theory is how well, and in what detail, and to what extent, it explains the physical, social, psychic etc. phenomena around us with some degree of internal coherency, accuracy and scope.

And in this respect Fromm's ideas have, and will continue to be, exemplary, his thought as relevant in our modern neo-liberal capitalist "democracies", as in the rest of the world, as ever. He is a creative ("productive" in his own words)force to be reckoned with.

This book contains his pearls of wisdom on the art of listening, on the art of therapy and on the art of living. I would heartily recommend it to anyone in the therapeutic vocations as well as to the individual who just wants to be inspired and enlightened.

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