Listening and Hearing: Interpersonal Process and the Humanistic Tradition

With the onslaught of new communications technologies, virtual reality, and the rapid pace of contemporary life, the capacity for listening to and hearing an 147other148 has become more difficult. In this class, drawing on the work of humanistic psychology and psychoanalysis, we will focus on the experience of listening and hearing in a dyadic, relational context. Through the use of role plays, video analysis and selected readings from Rogers, Maslow, Bion, Mitchell and others, this course will explore the experiential aspects of observation, interviewing and presence in human understanding. Through the identification of implicit narrativity, metaphor and language games, students will learn about their preconceptions, biases, and overall strengths and weaknesses when listening to others. This course will be primarily experiential and focus on the development of critical-reflexive listening skills. Coursework will also include selected readings about the process of psychotherapy through the lenses of humanistic, psychoanalytic and narrative theories of psychotherapy, as well as written analyses of individual and group role plays through the use of video.