Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
The Seven Levels of Intimacy : The Art of Loving and the Joy of Being Loved
We All Crave An Authentic Experience Of Intimacy. Though our hearts crave intimacy, though our minds understand our deep need for it, the self-revelation it requires is often too daunting a task. Complete and unrestrained sharing of self exposes the deepest human fear of being rejected for being ourselves. In "The Seven Levels of Intimacy, " Matthew Kelly both acknowledges...more
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published
November 1st 2005
by Fireside
(first published 1388)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
576)
There are some worthwhile concepts here, but their value is cheapened by Kelly's repeating his points over and over again. This stylistic bludgeoning is aggravating because it's deliberate. Moreover it's hard to be receptive to the message when you feel like slapping the messenger because he talks to you like you're a moron. A decent editor, who should have given this book an enema, was sorely needed. Good ideas; poor packaging.
2 likes · like · see review
view 1 comment
This book is killing me. I have to force myself to read it. I've actually started reading it twice because it just bores me to death. I feel like the idea's are probably good, but each paragraph is so redundant that it could be whittled down to half the length just by taking out all the repetition. I just want to scream, "I get it! We're supposed to be the-best-version-of-ourselves! Now what?!" If I have to see that hyphenated phrase one more time I may throw the book across the room and never f...more
6 likes · like · see review
Full of good things and crazy things. Fascinating and infuriating. Poorly written but not entirely useless. If you talk to me about it I will refer to it as "the seven-layer cake of intimacy." Claims that the purpose [not a purpose, but *the* purpose] of life is to become the best version of you you can be, which is obviously right, but stated over and over again in a way that doesn't carry as much water as Kelly wants. Yes, if you can always figure out what choice will help you become the best...more
2 likes · like · see review
My biggest gripe with the book is that a majority of the content is written without concrete examples. When there were concrete examples, it seemed like they were kind of tacked in and just didn't work as effectively. It flowed without any breaks.. a lot of watery and abstract descriptions of things that sure I "got" what he was saying but I felt like it lacked the punch. I skimmed through certain sections too that were topics I was already familiar with.
Funnily enough, the last 30 or so pages w...more
Funnily enough, the last 30 or so pages w...more
The author makes several interesting points throughout the book and gave me some ideas to share with my husband. However, it's far too redundant. The last two chapters were basically repeats of themselves, and I wanted to pull my hair out because it just seemed like a waste of time to re-read what I already read. Another thing I found frustrating were the lack of anecdotal examples. There were a couple, but not enough to make the book more interesting. I was also a perturbed that the author gave...more
Jan 24, 2008
Thomas
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
All my friends!!!
Recommended to Thomas by:
Gloria Callejas
This book is outstanding, and it deserves to be read again and again. In a society where everything is supposedly getting bigger, faster, and better, we haven't had nearly as much success with our relationships. Matthew Kelly's Seven Levels of Intimacy addresses this topic head on and offers profound insights that can put us back on track.
The book is divided into three sections. The first part contains holistic analysis and far and away the best content. The second part imparts "The Seven Levels...more
The book is divided into three sections. The first part contains holistic analysis and far and away the best content. The second part imparts "The Seven Levels...more
2 likes · like · see review
Lots of good info & perspective about focusing on becoming the-best-version-of-yourself & encouraging all of your loved ones to do the same & only letting people in your life who focus on helping you become the-best-version-of-yourself. It's a tall order & kind of gave me a headache just thinking about it but I plan to incorporate some of these principles into my life. Worth a read.
The message of this book was positive, and I agreed with most of what Kelly suggested about how to achieve a deeper level of emotional intimacy in any primary or high-level secondary relationship. However, his style was a bit grating. He's a public speaker, and the book was written as if he were speaking to an audience. Sometimes that style works, but in this case it just annoyed me. He repeated sentences, word for word, multiple times on one page, I'm sure to get his major points across, but on...more
At first I thought his book was a redundant nightmare simply because the author uses too much repition with his statements. But I gave the book a shot and realized there was much insight to be learned from the chapters further in. The book even inspired me to create my own handmade "Dream Book" which I think will have a greater impact on the focus of my life.
I learned much from this book and I hope to be able to implement a few of the nuggets I learned in my own life. One key I learned to devloping a truly loving, intimate relationship is to help each other become the best version of ourselves. If that's your focus, you can't fail.
This was recommended by a friend - good follow-up to 5 Love Languages. It had some good points, but like most of these kinds of books, it was very repetitive and wordy. I read it on the beach and got to ask Charlie a bunch of questions, so all in all, a good time!
This book is not perfect, but it is a starting-point to get into how to be caring to someone you want to care for one day. It is written as a starting-point and partially meant to be interactive for those who read it. That said, I liked this book.
Uno dei migliori libri che ho letto sulla "chiamata universale alla santità". Lo confronto con "Otto lezioni sull'amore umano" di T. Melendo Granados e vedo la ricca differenza tra approccio statunitense (a volte persino fastidiosamente pragmatico) ed europeo (ontologico). Ad ognuno il suo.
Will open your eyes to understanding, appreciating, and developing all types of relationships. I was surprised by what an easy read this was, and found myself 'dog-earing' MANY pages that I wanted to come back to...
This is an excellent book. I finished it about a week ago. It deals with connecting on 7 different levels in a relationship. I felt a calm come over me as I read this book and I felt very peaceful.
Great idea...but not such a great read. Truly it should be called "Becoming the best version of yourself" since this was the true theme. The seven levels were vague and forgettable but this statement was used over and over and over. And over. It probably should have more than 2 stars, as I did get some good insights on how to strengthen relationships in general. But that is kinda what is was...very general. It seemed like the author was trying to compile a book of profound one-liners. There was...more
A must read for intellectuals who value relationships and the art of becoming. This is not a book you want to speed-read, you should digesta nd reflect on each chapter before moving on to the next.
Very helpful in understanding confusing aspects of relationshps: understanding love, understanding behavior, and personal problem areas. Read it! Thanks Dave for the recommendation.
Nov 06, 2009
Chrystal
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
self-help-psychology
I think he does a great job of evaluating relationships and the building blocks towards true close and thriving relationships vs. shallow, empty or dying relationships.
I'm not sure how I came across this book, but I'll consider it part of my Love Research. :)
Parts are kind of repetitive, but there's some really good stuff, too.
Parts are kind of repetitive, but there's some really good stuff, too.
Content is very good. Like many books of this type, the author could have used half the words and still have conveyed the message just as effectively.
My first books about self help and relationship. This is an area I'm increasingly interested in yet no little about. I like that the author began with a story. He also ask the question: "What is your story?" Reading about intimacy, I ask myself and recall some scene in a movie or a work of fiction, have I seen this before? Often it's not spelled out but I can see many examples of people relating to each other in intimate and non-intimate ways. The thesis seems to be happiness is related to intim...more
A good, basic book to understanding intimacy issues/barriers and potential excercises for development within relationships.
While I forget a lot of what he says about each level, a number of the basic concepts come back to me a lot.
Great book with a lot of insight into the tricky, for me, path to emotional intimacy with another.
a must read.....if you are in any relationship, this is a book to read!
Extremely interesting read. Learned a lot from it.
I HIGHLY recommend this book to every person!!!
The CD version is very good
I wish I read this 20 years ago!
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Matthew Kelly was born in Sydney, Australia, where he began speaking and writing in 1993. Since that time he has travelled in more than fifty countries and spoken to over four million people. He has written twelve books which have appeared on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists and have been published in twenty-five languages. His titles include: The Rhythm of L...more
More about Matthew Kelly...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Love is the wanting, and the having, and the choosing, and the becoming. Love is the desire to see the person we love be and become all he or she is capable of being and becoming. Love is a willingness to lay down our own personal plans, desires, and agenda for the good of the relationship. Love is delayed gratification, pleasure, and pain. Love is being able to live and thrive apart, but choosing to be together.”
—
57 people liked it
“Life is about love. It's about whom you love and whom you hurt. Life's about how you love yourself and how you hurt yourself. Life's about how you love and hurt the people close to you. Life is about how you love and hurt the people who just cross your path for a moment. Life is about love.”
—
17 people liked it
More quotes…
