How this powerful method was developed, according to its founder Prof. Dr. med. Alfred Tomatis: The story of the Tomatis Method

 

The Tomatis method owes its name to its inventor, Prof. dr. med. Alfred TOMATIS (born on January 1, 1920 in Nice and died on December 25, 2001 in Carcassonne).

 

Tomatis was a famous French ear, nose and throat Doctor of the Paris School of Medicine and a specialist in hearing and speech problems. The son of a famous singer, Humberto TOMATIS, a lyrical bass at the Paris Opera, was familiar to him from earliest childhood to the world of music and opera. This dual character, on the one hand due to his family background and on the other due to his medical education, played a significant role in the professional career of Alfred TOMATIS: He quickly developed a high interest in the relationship between ear and voice.

 

Alfred TOMATIS was also an excellent specialist, whose greatest concern was the well-being of his patients, be it in the clinic or in his own practice, where hearing-impaired people and singers with voice problems visited him. His extraordinary intuition and countless clinical observations in his research on occupational deafness,  enabled ministries of labour, aviation and shipping to explore the close relationship between listening and speaking, and hence between listening and communicating. From his inner attitude as a doctor, he was able to develop over the course of the following years, a device (then called by the press "electronic ear"), which led to the training of the sense of hearing to a new, improved vocalization. Developed for this purpose, the Electronic Ear was officially presented at the Brussels World Fair in 1958 and awarded its inventor the Gold Medal for Scientific Research and, in 1962, the "Grande Medaille de Vermeil" of the City of Paris.

 

Through constant development Dr Alfred TOMATIS created over the following two decades the Tomatis method of listening training. The Tomatis Method is a self-contained discipline that pays close attention to hearing, psyche, and communication. This discipline, which according to its aspects is summarized under the term audio-psycho-phonology, lies at the interface of modern human sciences and is today more than ever before under constant development, just as its founder desperately wished. Its extraordinary meaning can be deduced from the fact that it does not replace or compete with other established sciences, but, on the contrary, links the positive aspects of other disciplines dedicated to the promotion and development of the human being, and thus increases its effectiveness. Therefore, the users of the Tomatis method, whose number has increased greatly since the end of the seventies of the 20th century worldwide, are highly valued as professional specialists.

 

In addition to his career as a clinician Dr Alfred TOMATIS often appeared as a guest at conferences and gave many personal Lectures. He also spent many years teaching at the School of Anthropology and the School of Applied Psychology in Paris, as well as at several universities in the English-speaking world. Countless books, articles and interviews have been translated into many languages, opening up faster access to the basics of the Tomatis method.  

 

A large collection of studies and publications worldwide can be read here. tomatisassociation.org