In this study of pragmatic (behavioral) effects of human communication, disturbed behavior is seen as a communicative reaction to a particular situation rather than evidence of the disease of an individual mind. Communication is a relationship that is qualitatively different from the "properties" of the individuals involved. 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? They then extend it to psychotherapeutic double binds and the technique of "prescribing the symptom." In conclusion, they postulate about man's communication with reality in the existential sense.

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

Self-Help

Don D. Jackson

Paul Watzlawick

Janet Helmick Beavin

Relationships

W.W.Norton&Company

Calling upon metaphors, vignettes, jokes, innuendos, and certain other "right-hemispheric" language games, Paul Watzlawick shows how we can (and do) make everyday life miserable. Do you see the past through a rosy filter that makes it seem like Paradise Lost? Are you convinced that traffic lights always turn red for you? Do you have to win (so as not to lose)? After extricating yourself from a bad relationship, do you find another partner just like the previous one? If so, congratulations! You have the makings of an unhappiness expert. With the techniques in this book, you can raise yourself to the genius level. A word of warning, however. Along the way you may begin to ask yourself, "How did I manage to turn myself into my own worst enemy?" Fortunately, this tongue-in-cheek (but serious) volume takes a look at that question too. Special attention is given to such topics as "Four Games with the Past," "Self-fulfilling Prophecies," and "Why Would Anybody Love Me?" Those who believe that the search for happiness will eventually lead to happiness will find much to ponder in the section "Beware of Arriving." All readers will be both amused and startled to find themselves in these pages, but there is a special delight and enlightenment for therapists and counselors. Although the author does not officially admit it, the book is one complex "symptom prescription," a therapeutic double bind as described and practiced by him and his colleagues.

Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious

Happiness

Norton*(ww Norton Co

The connection between communication and reality is a relatively new idea. It is only in recent decades that the confusions, disorientations and very different world views that arise as a result of communication have become an independent field of research. One of the experts who has been working in this field is Dr. Paul Watzlawick, and he here presents, in a series of arresting and sometimes very funny examples, some of the findings.

How real is real?: Confusion, disinformation, communication

Reference

Words, Language & Grammar

Random House]

In this groundbreaking book, a world authority on human communication and communication therapy points out a basic contradiction in the way therapists use language. Although communications emerging in therapy are ascribed to the mind's unconscious, dark side, they are habitually translated in clinical dialogue into the supposedly therapeutic language of reason and consciousness. But, Dr. Watzlawick argues, it is precisely this bizarre language of the unconscious which holds the key to those realms where alone therapeutic change can take place. Dr. Watzlawick suggests that rather than following the usual procedure of interpreting the patient's communications and thereby translating them into the language of a given psychotherapeutic theory, the therapist must learn the patient's language and make his or her interventions in terms that are congenial to the patient's manner of conceptualizing reality. Only in that way, he shows, can the therapist effectively bring about genuine changes and problem resolutions. Drawing on the work of Milton H. Erickson, he supports his findings with many (and often amusing) examples. This book, then, is a virtual introductory course to the grammar and language of the unconscious.

Language Of Change

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Basic Books

Apprivoiser son malheur est le premier pas vers la joie : le célèbre psychologue Paul Watzlawick, fondateur de l École de Palo Alto, nous apprend pas à pas à nous réconcilier avec nos névroses les plus banales. Cette étude à l humour railleur, sous forme de manuel parodique, s appuie sur des exemples littéraires, philosophiques et historiques. Et révèle au lecteur qu il tient le bonheur entre ses mains.

Faites vous-même votre malheur

SEUIL

Menschliche Kommunikation

Janet H. Beavin

Huber Hans

Der Titel dieses Buches ist Programm. Was ist das, was wir als Wirklichkeit ansehen? Gibt es eine "objektive Wirklichkeit"? Wo liegen die Grenzen unseres Verstehens und Denkens? Auf unterhaltsame Weise, mit Hilfe von Anekdoten und Beispielen vermittelt Paul Watzlawick, Forschungsbeauftrager am Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA, ein anderes Bild von Realität, das sich von unserer üblichen stark unterscheidet. Über vieles denken wir normalerweise nicht nach, sondern nehmen das meiste als gegeben hin. Verhaltensforscher, Philosophen und Physiker prägen unser Weltbild seit Jahrhunderten, doch alle Paradigmen sind stets im Fluß.
In drei Teile -- Konfusion, Desinformation und Kommunikation -- gegliedert, präsentiert Watzlawick unter anderem Beispiele aus geheimdienstlichen Tätigkeiten des 20. Jahrhunderts, sowie Ergebnisse psychologischer Experimente aus allen Etappen der Forschung.

Wie Wirklich ist die Wirklichkeit? hat mich schwer beeindruckt. Vieles, was ich verstreut ab und an irgendwo aufgeschnappt hatte, finde ich in diesem Werk wieder. In meinen Augen ist es ein wichtiges Buch, weil es viele scheinbar gegebene und unabänderliche Wahrheiten relativiert, ohne ihre subjektive Korrektheit jedoch in jedem Fall in Frage stellen zu wollen. Denn Wirklichkeit ist nicht das, was ist, sondern das, was wir erleben.

Wie Wirklich Ist Die Wirklichkeit?

Piper

Vom Unsinn des Sinns oder Vom Sinn des Unsinns.

Piper Verlag GmbH

El Arte de Amargarse La Vida (Spanish Edition)

Círculo de Lectores

Il linguaggio del cambiamento. Elementi di comunicazione terapeutica

Feltrinelli

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Books by Paul Watzlawick