Hard Talk - When Speech Is Difficult

A moving, patient-centered portrait of the social importance of speech, from a medical expert known for his humanizing explorations of health. Language comes to us through culture, environment, and family. Words embed over time, as we use our minds to comprehend them and then our mouths to say, mean, and own them. Without the ability to speak, or when talking becomes difficult, we face a challenge like few others, forced to reconnect with a world which assumes its communicators are eloquent vocally. In Cole creates space for people with a variety of conditions, including cerebral palsy, vocal cord palsy, cleft palate, Parkinson's, and post stroke dysphasia, to describe in their own words what the experience of difficult speech is like. No struggle is the same. Each develops along its own axis of factors--cognitive, social, and physical--that lead to unique vulnerabilities as well as extraordinary moments of adaptation and resilience. One person finds social chatter becoming more problematic than work speech. Another grows alarmed as changes in speech begin to constrain inner thoughts. Some lose the ability to find or make words though they retain awareness, while others lose self-awareness but maintain fluent speech bereft of meaning. One even loses the ability to speak with family while continuing to interact at work.

Summary

A moving, patient-centred portrait of the social importance of speech, from a medical expert known for his humanizing explorations of health.

Product details

• Authors: Jonathan Cole, Cole Jonathan
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 13.05.2025
• EAN: 9780262049566
• ISBN: 978-0-262-04956-6
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 235 mm x 24 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; PSYCHOLOGY / Personality, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience, HEALTH & FITNESS / Hearing & Speech, The self, ego, identity, personality, Psychology: the self, ego, identity, personality, Coping with disability, Neurosciences, Coping with / advice about physical impairments / disability