Description
Book SynopsisRichard Kearney offers a timely call for the cultivation of the basic human need to touch and be touched. Making the case for the complementarity of touch and technology, this book is a passionate plea to recover a tangible sense of community and the joys of life with others.
Trade ReviewTouch is a sophisticated book that comes at a time when, as a result of a biological catastrophe that has spread across the globe, we share our sense of isolation with other humans in the global sense. So this might be the right moment to relearn how intertwined touch is with every aspect of our life, both as individuals and as one species among many. -- Maria Pia Lara * International Journal of Philosophical Studies *
Kearney presents compelling evidence for the therapeutic power of touch, from the treatment of torture victims to the physiology of childhood trauma and more quotidian effects on stress, immunity, and sleep. -- Kieran Setiya * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Kearney’s powerful meditation aims at initiating a new vital wisdom of sensorial groundedness based on tact and savvy, flair and insight. -- Anne Davenport * JMJ Journal *
Touch provides a compelling narrative on an intimate connection between healing and touch. -- Frank Armstrong * Cassandra Voices *
A fascinating piece of work by one of the most interesting thinkers of our age. -- Simon Critchley, author of
Tragedy, the Greeks, and UsWhich came first? The spirit seeking a touch? Or the touch seeking a further touch? A confirmation of life out of touch, a phone that a hand cannot reach or touch? Sometimes it seems that the senses were created out of a lonely and desiring spirit. Especially touch. In this openhearted study of that sense, Richard Kearney leads the reader masterfully through thinkers of the past and the present who have wondered deeply, had ideas, and made gestures in response to the mystery of 'feeling things.' -- Fanny Howe, author of
Second Childhood and winner of the 2009 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
Kearney is acutely aware of how our digital technologies exacerbate the drift to excarnation in modern culture. This book casts much light on how we lost sight of touch—and might regain it. -- Charles Taylor, author of
A Secular AgeRichard Kearney writes with urgency, fluency and commitment. He connects serious and complex thought to ideas on how we might live better in the world. His work arises not only from deep reading but also from a belief that just as philosophy comes from the world it has a duty to touch and transform its own source. -- Colm Tóibín, author of
Brooklyn: A NovelTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: Are We Losing Our Senses?
1. Coming to Our Senses: Tact, Savvy, Flair, Insight, Sound
2. Philosophies of Touch: From Aristotle to Phenomenology
3. Tales of the Wounded Healer
4. Healing Touch: Therapies of Trauma and Recovery
5. Reclaiming Touch in the Age of Excarnation
Coda: Touch and the Coronavirus
Notes
Index
