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

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?