Emotional Intimacy - by Robert Augustus Masters (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Emotions link our feelings, thoughts, and conditioning at multiple levels, but they may remain a largely untapped source of strength, freedom, and connection. The capacity to be intimate with all our emotions, teaches Robert Augustus Masters, is essential for creating fulfilling relationships and living with awareness, love, and integrity. With Emotional Intimacy, this respected therapist and author invites us to explore:

How to deepen our emotional literacy and become intimate with all our emotions
- The nature of emotional disconnection and what to do about it
- How to identify our emotions, fully experience them, and skillfully express them
- Illuminating, resolving, and healing old emotional wounds
- Gender differences in emotional intimacy and expression
- Steps for bringing greater emotional intimacy and depth into our relationships
- In-depth guidance for those facing depression, anxiety, and shame
- Why "blowing off steam" may make us feel worse, and the nature of healthy catharsis
- The difference between anger and aggression, shame and guilt, jealousy and envy
- Individual chapters for fully engaging with fear, anger, joy, jealousy, shame, grief, guilt, awe, and the full spectrum of our emotions
There are no negative or unwholesome emotions--only negative or harmful things we do with them. Through real life examples, exercises, and an abundance of key insights, Masters provides a lucid guide for reclaiming our emotions, relating to them skillfully, and turning them into allies--to enrich and deepen our lives.

Review Quotes

"Understanding our emotions and working with them and through them has never been more important. Personally, relationally, globally, the maturing of emotion is the first step toward peace. In Emotional Intimacy, Robert Masters creates a thorough geography of the heart, offering detailed understandings and extensive ways to practice being human. A true resource for individuals and those in the helping professions." --Mark Nepo, author of Seven Thousand Ways To Listen and The Book of Awakening

"There is wisdom and power in this remarkable exploration of emotional intimacy. The author journeys into unexpected regions of the human heart and with rare discernment explores the dark and light of that which allows for a new order of coming together." --Jean Houston, PhD, author of The Search for the Beloved

"From the moment I opened Emotional Intimacy and treated myself to a long look at - better to say "drink of" -its contents, something in my heart and whole being relaxed and released. I knew I was in the presence of one of the most precise analyses and deeply comforting (which means, strength-giving) contemplations of human emotion ever written, any time, anywhere, by anyone. Over half a million books are now published every year. Very few deserve reading by many of us. Hardly any should be read, imbibed, deeply absorbed and used by just about every adult and most teenagers on the planet. This is one of them. I'm a fairly well respected teacher of such things myself, and I'm marveling at it. I intend to go to school in this masterwork by Robert Augustus Masters for a very long time to come. I can hardly praise it, and thank Robert, enough." --Saniel Bonder, co-founder, Waking Down, and author of Ultimaya 1.0: The Trouble with the Wishes of Leopold Stokes

"Emotional Intimacy is a godsend. Open it on any page and you will experience the truth within your emotions. I recommend this wonderful book to everyone!" --Christiane Northrup, MD, author of the New York Times bestsellers Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

"This is one of the best books on human emotion I've read. What I particularly like about it is its practicality. Dr. Masters has obviously done his fair share of work on his own relationships; his insights and suggestions show the signs of one who has been there in the heat of action." --Gay Hendricks, PhD, author of The Big Leap and co-author of Conscious Loving with Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks

"Emotional Intimacy sets out a perfectly clear and accurate map of the all-too-often confused dimension of our emotional territory, and the result is everything you could ever want from a book on this topic: it is concise, useful, beautifully succinct, exquisitely well-executed, and a deeply joyful book to read. I highly recommend this book for professional and laypeople alike--it has something deeply important to offer each--and you won't regret it!" --Ken Wilber, Integral philosopher and author of A Brief History of Everything

"This remarkably helpful, lucidly written book provides an exceptional road map on how to work creatively and constructively with all of our emotions. I was particularly impressed by Masters' emphasis on intimacy throughout the book, including the art of developing intimacy with each of our emotions. For those of us who wish to deepen our capacity for emotional intimacy with another human being, Masters' offering is a beautiful place to begin." --Katherine Woodward Thomas, author of Calling in "The One"

"In Emotional Intimacy, Robert Masters offers a primer on emotions--from the most primary to the most subtle. Whether you are currently in a relationship or wish to be in one, this is a very worthwhile book to pick up and select a chapter from which to taste, digest, transform, and heal. As a couples' therapist, I will definitely recommend this book to my clients." --Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, author of Wired for Love

About the Author

Robert Augustus Masters
Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, is an integral psychotherapist, relationship expert, and spiritual teacher whose work blends the psychological and physical with the spiritual, emphasizing embodiment, emotional literacy, and the development of relational maturity. He is the author of fourteen books, including Transformation through Intimacy and Spiritual Bypassing.