A.-P.-P. Inter-Centres Bulletin No. 8 (June 1977)

Bulletin of the International Association of Audio-Psycho-Phonology (A.I.A.P.P.), No. 8, June 1977. The cover bears the printed heading “Association Internationale d’Audio-Psycho-Phonologie” and the title “Bulletin A.-P.-P. Inter Centres” (referred to in the text by the acronym B.I.C.); it serves as a link between the centres practising the method and lists the secretariat of the A.I.A.P.P. at 68, boulevard de Courcelles in Paris. The sections also report on the activity of the French association (A.F.A.P.P.).

This issue opens with a technical note responding to a request for information from Professor Tomatis: a detailed explanation of “densified sounds”. The text distinguishes absolute density from real density, describes the process of successive filtering and reconnection of the sound matrices, and links this technique to the physiological structure of the ear (logarithmic progression of the cells of the organ of Corti). It indicates the bands concerned — densified music, nursery rhymes, Gregorian chant, texts and filtered sibilants — and their general clinical indications (bilateral hypoacusis, Ménière’s vertigo, depressive syndromes, certain communication disorders), while underlining the complexity of their production.

The bulletin then presents the life of the training programme and the network: the announcement of the A.F.A.P.P. scientific days in Carcassonne (2-3 July 1977), taking up papers planned for a cancelled Monaco congress; a survey of the A.P.P. training sessions of the 1976-1977 year (sessions held at the language centres of Paris and Fribourg as well as in Carboneras, Spain) with reflections on the recruitment of trainees; a note on the Paris language centre as a continuing-education body; a report on the introductory days of 23-24 April 1977 in Paris; a list of the centres open during the summer. Several case studies illustrate the application of the method, followed by a section on university studies devoted to A.P.P. and reading notes on children’s drawing. The issue also reports on travels and lectures (the Pau day, the Fribourg weekend, the international serocytology congress in Montreux), reproduces a question-and-answer correspondence on “A.P.P. and speech therapy”, and continues the series on infantile autism. The clinical examples and the people mentioned are reported here in a general manner, without reproducing the nominal or personal data of the document.

Historical context — In 1977, Alfred Tomatis’s audio-psycho-phonology method was disseminated by an international network of centres federated within the A.I.A.P.P. and relayed in France by the A.F.A.P.P. This issue bears witness to the structuring of practitioner training, the dissemination effort (scientific and introductory days, continuing education) and the technical deepening of the Electronic Ear, as well as the desire to situate the method in relation to the therapies for infantile autism then under debate.