Touch

Recovering Our Most Vital Sense (No Limits)

By: Richard Kearney

Narrated by: Scott Carrico

Our existence is increasingly lived at a distance. As we move from flesh to image, we are in danger of losing touch with each other and ourselves. How can we combine the physical with the virtual, our embodied experience with our global connectivity? How can we come back to our senses?

Richard Kearney offers a timely call for the cultivation of the basic human need to touch and be touched. He argues that touch is our most primordial sense, foundational to our individual and common selves. Kearney explores the role of touch, from ancient wisdom traditions to modern therapies. He demonstrates that a fundamental aspect of touch is interdependence, its inherently reciprocal nature, which offers a crucial corrective to our fixation with control. 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.

The book is published by Columnia University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2021 Columbia University Press (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Kearney presents compelling evidence for the therapeutic power of touch, from the treatment of torture victims to the physiology of childhood trauma..." (Los Angeles Review of Books)

"Richard Kearney’s extraordinary book puts us in touch with touch itself..." (Journal for Continental Philosophy of Religion)

"Kearney’s powerful meditation aims at initiating a new vital wisdom of sensorial groundedness based on tact and savvy, flair and insight." (JMJ Journal)