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A careful, impartial reading of The Listening Process by Robert Langs is hardly likely to leave any therapist indifferent or unchanged. Aside from the book being a treasure trove of scintillating ideas and thought-provoking concepts and theories, it also challenges the reader to compare and evaluate his own ways of doing therapy with the rigorous, exacting standards of the author. It is a clarion beckoning therapists to listen, not in the time-honored way, primarily to the pathology of the patient, his intrapsychic conflicts, fantasies or verbal contents, but, first and foremost, to the interactions of therapist and patient, and particularly to the frequently overlooked direct or implicit effects of the therapist's interventions or techniques upon his patients.
Almost any therapist's sensibilities are likely to be jarred by Langs' litany of errors. These include such items as tampering with the structure or “frame” of the therapy, being insufficiently aware or attentive to the adaptive stresses placed on patients by various interventions, making interpretations based on manifest content rather than listening for the areas of emotional urgency in the therapeutic interaction, and having preconceived ideas and intentions before and during an hour rather than having “faith” that the patient will show the way to an understanding of crucial issues and, in some instances, serve as a “supervisor” communicating where the therapist has erred or gone astray.
The book's format consists of a preface and ten chapters corresponding to ten taped sessions of a seminar conducted by Langs with psychiatric residents. This arrangement, however, is susceptible to considerable wordiness, overlap, and repetition. Although the tapes were undoubtedly edited, the book is overly long. The book also contains a tripartite appendix consisting of a previously published paper, “Some Communicative Properties of the Bipersonal Field”; an outline of the steps in the listening process; and and excellent,