Felt Sense: Writing with the Body

Felt sense connects the mind with the body, language with feeling, discovering with knowing. Derived from the work of philosopher and psychologist Eugene Gendlin, felt sense allows writers to attend to what is on the edge of their thinking. Its implications are revelatory for anyone who writes-or teaches writing.

In three lucid chapters, Sondra Perl connects felt sense to three core concepts:

• Chapter One is historical; it locates felt sense within the field of composition studies.
• Chapter Two is experiential; keyed to the CD, it includes a transcript of the "Guidelines for Composing"-a body/mind meditation which provides a "protected space" for writing.
• Chapter Three is theoretical; it reveals how language and meaning are connected to inchoate, bodily intuitions and presents a theory of embodied knowing.

The accompanying CD, which is also available separately, contains "Guidelines for Composing." Encouraging the development of felt sense, these Guidelines can be used by teachers in classroom settings or by writers working on their own.

Sondra Perl, Ph.D., is Professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she coordinates the Ph.D. program in composition and rhetoric. An acclaimed teacher and a Guggenheim Fellow, Dr. Perl has been leading writing workshops on college campuses and in universities, in North America and abroad, for over 20 years.