From Grasping to Bearing Witness - Listening to and listening with in professional communication: a phenomenological-hermeneutic exploration with two vignettes

Key Points

Listening to focuses on understanding while often reflecting the listener's perspective, impacting communication dynamics.
The distinction between 'listening to' and 'listening with' reveals how interpersonal communication can either constrain or facilitate genuine connection.
Phenomenological analysis and hermeneutic methods are employed to dissect the ethical dimensions of communication practices.
Understanding these listening modes may enhance professional interactions, fostering deeper empathetic relationships.

Abstract

In professional and interpersonal communication, an instrumental view of listening often dominates: listening as information acquisition and problem solving. In this article, I distinguish this mode of “listening to” from an existential mode that I call “listening with.” Listening to is a serious attempt to understand the Other as well as possible, but it carries a risk: the Other’s story is quickly absorbed into my own frame of reference, after which my response says more about me than about the Other. Listening with is not a superior technique, but an ethical attitude of availability and restraint: I stay with the Other’s appeal without wanting to possess, conclude, or repair him or her.

From Grasping to Bearing Witness - Listening to and listening with in professional communication: a phenomenological-hermeneutic exploration with two vignettes

Key Points

Abstract

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