A.F.A.P.P. Bulletin No. 1 (April 1983)

Bulletin of the French Association of Audio-Psycho-Phonology (A.F.A.P.P.), No. 1, April 1983. The cover bears the header “Association Française d’Audio-Psycho-Phonologie”, the title “Bulletin A.F.A.P.P.”, the words “Avril 1983” and the number “N° 1”. This is the first issue, presented as “modest” and “introductory”, intended to become a place for communication and exchange among members, with a hoped-for quarterly publication.

The issue opens with an editorial dated 27 April 1983 and signed by the association’s president: after “a silent year”, the A.F.A.P.P. intends to multiply contacts among its members, open up to the outside world and prepare the upcoming Angoulême days, whose proceedings are to focus on the Listening Test and on harmonising viewpoints with a view to possible research. A section then presents relations with the S.A.P.F.I., the Italian audio-psycho-phonology society based in Verona, its president and his collaborators, as well as a plan for exchanges and meetings in the Pyrenees during the summer; a bibliography of Italian articles on the Listening Test is noted. Various association matters follow: a clarification addressed to a journal of child neuropsychiatry concerning an article published in late 1982, the announcement (then cancellation) of a training cycle, the compilation of a directory, the plan for a thematic bibliography, a reminder about membership dues and a call for contributions to bulletin No. 2.

The bulletin then reproduces the report of the Narbonne days of 22 and 23 January 1983, led using group methods and bringing together around thirty participants. From these days is drawn a long list of questions raised by the practitioners (the role of speech therapy, training, the interpretation and administration of the Listening Test, equipment settings, the use of frequencies, therapeutic indications, etc.), followed by the answers worked out collectively and grouped by theme. These answers address in particular the distinction between the A.P.P. technique and the name of its inventor, the “drift towards myth”, as well as the academic and hospital work conducted on the effects of sound. The issue includes the reproduction of a press article devoted to the “Tomatis myth” and ends with a directory of members (names, addresses and telephone numbers), reproduced here for documentary purposes and which constitutes personal data.

Historical context — In 1983, Alfred Tomatis’s audio-psycho-phonology method was being disseminated in France by the A.F.A.P.P. and maintained ties with sister societies abroad, including the Italian S.A.P.F.I. This first issue of the bulletin bears witness to the effort to structure the network of practitioners: pooling field questions, standardising the Listening Test, and taking a stance in the face of media and scientific criticism aimed at the method and the figure of its founder.