After failing at university, socially isolated and driven by his stuttering to the point of despair, an unexpected encounter with a book about Zen provided a glimmer of hope. Then, little by little his fortune changed, and the stutter - which, previously had posed the greatest obstacle - became the catalyst for the development of a new and profoundly liberating perspective on life.
Interwoven with Brocklehurst's personal story, The Perfect Stutter explores the nature of language and verbal communication, the significance of mistakes, and the roles that values and value-judgements play in our lives. In so doing, the book highlights the importance of our deepest desires and their relevance to our understanding of what it means to be a human being.
About the Author
After his stuttering ceased to be a problem, Paul Brocklehurst returned to university to study Speech Therapy, then Psycholinguistics, and then finally, he completed a doctorate in Experimental Psychology. As a researcher, he is best known for his investigation of the nature of inner speech, the relationship between stuttering and the fear of communication failure, and for his development of the Variable Release Threshold Hypothesis of stuttering. In recent years he has become an active member of the stuttering self-help community and is well known for his promotion of mindfulness in people who stutter and for his work as director of the Stammering Self-Empowerment Programme. After retiring from academic life, he moved to the French Pyrenees where he now divides his time between walking in the mountains, growing organic vegetables, running mindfulness groups, and writing.