Paul Watzlawick

Janet Beavin Bavelas

Janet Helmick Beavin

Don De Avila Jackson

Suggests that the styles and structures of contemporary interpersonal communication are responsible for many mental and behavioral disorders

A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes

Pragmatics of Human Communication

Bill O'Hanlon

Don D. Jackson

For the first time, a new generation of readers will have the opportunity to experience the ideas set forth in Pragmatics of Human Communication, a book that formed the foundation of much research into interpersonal communication in the latter portion of the 20th century. A new preface by Bill O'Hanlon puts Watzlawick's work in context for readers in this new paperback edition. Topics covered in this wide-ranging book include: the origins of communication; the idea that all behavior is communication; meta-communcation; the properties of an open system; the family as a system of communication; the nature of paradox in psychotherapy; existentialism and human communication. After defining certain general concepts, the authors present basic characteristics of human communication and illustrate their manifestations and potential pathologies. Then the systemic aspects of human interactions that arise from the patterning of specific characteristics of communication are exemplified by the analysis of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

The properties and function of human communication. Called “one of the best books ever about human communication,” and a perennial bestseller, Pragmatics of Human Communication has formed the foundation of much contemporary research into interpersonal communication, in addition to laying the groundwork for context-based approaches to psychotherapy. The authors present the simple but radical idea that problems in life often arise from issues of communication, rather than from deep psychological disorders, reinforcing their conceptual explorations with case studies and well-known literary examples. Written with humor and for a variety of readers, this book identifies simple properties and axioms of human communication and demonstrates how all communications are actually a function of their contexts. Topics covered in this wide-ranging book include: the origins of communication; the idea that all behavior is communication; meta-communication; the properties of an open system; the family as a system of communication; the nature of paradox in psychotherapy; existentialism and human communication.

"This book brings together a long-term program of research focused on a single question that I have pursued, passionately and stubbornly, over several decades: What makes face-to-face dialogue unique? The theory that is still evolving from this research starts with the premise, shared with many language scholars, that face-to-face dialogue is the basic and prototypic form of language use. The research goes on to identify and explore the two resources-multi-modality and a high level of reciprocity--that do not occur in combination in any other form of language use. Research has led to the conclusion that having a face-to-face dialogue is the fastest and most skillful activity that ordinary humans do in real time. To study face-to-face dialogue is to enter and explore a micro-world that a written text cannot capture. The microscope for face-to-face dialogue includes digitized video, appropriate software, and refocusing one's mind from the everyday pace of events. The website that supplements this book [OUP website] demonstrates microanalysis with videos of most of the examples described in the text. The ultimate goal of this book is for readers to appreciate face-to-face dialogue in the several senses of the word: to be able to perceive to apprehend or understand to recognize the significance or subtleties of and to recognize as valuable or excellent."--

Theory, Research, and Applications

Face-To-Face Dialogue

Janet H. Beavin

Menschliche Kommunikation

Formen, Störungen, Paradoxien

Los autores, miembros del equipo que trabajó diez años en Palo Alto (California) con Gregory Bateson, estudian aquí la pragmática de la comunicación interpersonal. La comunicación es considerada como una relación cualitativamente diferente de las propiedades de los individuos que participan en ella. Después de definir ciertos conceptos generales, los autores presentan las características básicas de la comunicación humana e ilustran sus manifestaciones y sus posibles perturbaciones. Los distintos aspectos de la teoría son ejemplificados mediante un análisis de la pieza ¿ Quién teme a Virginia Woolf?, de Edward Albee. Se analiza la importancia especial de la paradoja y la contradicción en la comunicación humana, tanto desde el punto de vista de la patología como de la terapia. La conducta perturbada es vista como una reacción comunicacional ante una situación que tiene determinadas propiedades, y no como una enfermedad localizada en la mente del individuo. Se discute también la famosa teoría del doble vínculo sobre la esquizofrenia, y se ejemplifica la situación contradictoria que caracteriza al doble vínculo en unas variadas situaciones interpersonales, incluida la psicoterapia. En el último capítulo se establece una comparación entre la teoría de la comunicación y el punto de vista existencial. Dentro de la nueva literatura sobre los fenómenos de la comunicación humana, este libro está ya en camino de convertirse en un clásico.

Janet Beavin Bavelas

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