The Soul of Desire

Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community

By: Curt Thompson MD, Makoto Fujimura - foreword

Narrated by: Kyle Tait

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

We are people of desire.

In The Soul of Desire, psychiatrist Curt Thompson suggests that underneath all our longings is the desire to be known - and what's more, that this fundamental yearning manifests itself in our deep need to make things of beauty, revealing who we are to others. Desire and beauty go hand in hand.

But both our craving to be known and our ability to create beauty have been marred by trauma and shame, collapsing our imagination for what God has for us and blinding us to the possibility that beauty could ever emerge from our ashes. Drawing on his work in interpersonal neurobiology and clinical practice, Thompson presents a powerful picture of the capacity of the believing community to reshape our imaginations, hold our desires and griefs together, and invite us into the beauty of God's presence.

The Soul of Desire is a mature, creative work, weaving together neuroscience and spiritual formation to open up new horizons for thinking not only about the nature of the mind but about what it means to be human.

©2021 Curt Thompson (P)2021 eChristian

Highly recommend

My wish would be for every Christian to read this book in the next year. I found it to be insightful and timely. A great step in my Christian growth, even after many years of being a Christian.

The quest to restore beauty and joy to life

A meaningful exploration into how to see the joy while enduring the quest to bring understanding to life.

Beautiful work

This is a hope-filled examination for trauma and recovery. It beautifully holds the tension between recognizing the pain of trauma and holding hope for recovery within the person and with their community.

very cerebral, take it slow.

it will hit you differently if you are single or married. listen for little nuggets that resonate with your story

Wonderfully enlightening book.

Thank you so much Dr. Curt for putting this book together. It is so informative and I have had at least two other friends buying a copy.

Not for me

I looked like it would be a great read, but I just couldn't get into this one. I believe the intended audience is enneagram 4's and 5's, who I bet will love it.

One of the best listens on audible!

Each line is filled with wisdom and none are waisted. Such depth of insight into community based whole person formation can look like in our day. Such a radical challenge to the mechanistic and individualistic approaches so prevalent in the church. I will listen again and again.

Transformative!

Excellent. Enlightening. Life changing. The intersection of interpersonal relationships and neurobiology is transformative. A must read!

Great manna for a 2023 new year revealtion

God gave me a new year revelation of adjusting my focus and right on the heels of that revelation I was led to this book. The topic is so relevant to what I needed to begin my journey of healing and seeing from God’s perspective. While I may disagree with some of the author’s political perspective, it was part of my journey. Being able to see and hear someone else’s point of view, disagree with it, yet be willing to receive and consume the meat of what they were saying. The narrator did an incredible job allowing the author’s words to be a balm and really bring healing. I have been blessed and grew because of this text.

Gotta Love the Intersection of Neurology & Spirituality

The work, and confessional communities alone, described in this book are incredible. A wonderful look at how group witness and focus on beauty can bring worthwhile change and healing.