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?: Communication, Disinformation, Confusion

Politics & Social Sciences

Watzlawick, Paul

Philosophy

Souvenir Press Ltd.

Three prominent American therapists detail their theories and strategies for promoting human change and dealing with related psychological problems.

Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution

Self-Help

Fisch, Richard

Weakland, John H.

Relationships

W.W.Norton&Company

FROM THE DUST JACKET: "ULTRA-SOLUTIONS: HOW TO FAIL MOST SUCCESSFULLY...NOW IN A NEW VOLUME, (AUTHOR PAUL WATZLAWICK) ..TURNS TO OUR STRIVINGS FOR ULTRA-SOLUTIONS--THOSE FINAL SOLUTIONS THAT DO AWAY WITH THE PROBLEM AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. (A PERFECT ULTRA-SOLUTION LIES IN THAT OLD MEDICAL JOKE: 'THE OPERATION WAS SUCCESSFUL, BUT THE PATIENT DIED.') AS HE BEGINS THIS BOOK, THE AUTHOR MUSES ABOUT THE FATE OF MACBETH AT THE HANDS OF THE THREE WITCHES. THEIR STRATEGIES LED TO HIS DOWNFALL, AND--THOUGH MUCH REFINED DUE TO MODERN TECHNOLOGY--ARE IN FORCE TODAY. THE URGE FOR ULTRA-SOLUTIONS HAS BEEN WITH US SINCE UNRECORDED TIME, AND THE WITCHES ARE ALWAYS THERE TO OFFER SINISTER ENCOURAGEMENT." INCLUDES: TABLE OF CONTENTS AUTHOR'S NOTE 1. SECURITY IS MORTALS' CHIEFEST ENEMY 2. TWICE AS MUCH IS NOT NECESSARILY TWICE AS GOOD 3. GOOD CAN BE BAD 4. THE (ALLEGEDLY) EXCLUDED MIDDLE 5. A 'CHAIN REACTION' OF KINDNESS? 6. NONZERO-SUM GAMES 7. BRAVE DIGITALIZED WORLD 8. 'I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOUA RE THINKING' 9. DISORDER AND ORDER 10. HUMANITY, DIVINITY, BESTIALITY 11. GLOOMY SUNDAY 12. IS IT THIS? BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ultra-Solutions: How to Fail Most Successfully (English and German Edition)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

Essays discuss the structure of human relationships, depression following stroke, hypnotherapy, schizophrenia, imaginary communication, self-reference, and ideological reality

Munchhausen's Pigtail, or Psychotherapy & "Reality" Essays and Lectures (English, German and German Edition)

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

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.

The Language of Change: Elements of Therapeutic Communication

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.

The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious (The Pursuit of Unhappiness)

In his international best seller, The Situation Is Hopeless, But Not Serious, Paul Watzlawick showed us how to become unhappiness experts. Now in a new volume he turns to our strivings for ultra-solutions--those final solutions that do away with the problem and just about everything else. (A perfect ultra-solution lies in that old medical joke: "The operation was successful, but the patient died.")
As he begins this book, the author muses about the fate of Macbeth at the hands of the three witches. Their strategies led to his downfall, and--though much refined due to modern technology--are in force today. The urge for ultra-solutions has been with us since unrecorded time, and the witches are always there to offer sinister encouragement.
Sure-fire candidates for ultra-solutions emerge in such chapters as "Twice as Much Is Not Necessarily Twice as Good," "Good Can Be Bad," "Nonzero-Sum Games," "Brave Digitalized World," and "I Know Exactly What You're Thinking." Other chapters point out the dangers of security and the nature of order/disorder.
Fortunately, all can defend themselves against Hecate and her companions. While Dr. Watzlawick appears to be outlining all the ways we can "snatch failure from the jaws of success," he is, paradoxically, making us aware of the absurdity of our behavior.

Ultra-Solutions: How to Fail Most Successfully

Personal Transformation

Citing the mythical Baron von Munchhausen's method of rescuing himself and his horse from drowning by hoisting himself up by his pigtail, Paul Watzlawick, in this collection of essays and lectures, asks: do we – by choosing to see the world in a particular way – blind ourselves to seeing it another way? Is it possible to pull oneself (or others) out of some untenable situation and see life from the outside with new eyes?With his usual insight and wit, Dr. Watzlawick shows us how we can change our perspective of reality to suit our needs rather than adhering to a fixed view, and thus avoid the consequences of self-imposed limitations. Along the way he pays homage to such seminal thinkers as anthropologist Gregory Bateson, psychiatrist Don D. Jackson, hypnotherapist Milton H. Erickson, and bio-cybernetician Heinz von Foerster, whose writings have influenced his own work and the collective work of the Mental Research Institute at Palo Alto.

Munchhausen's Pigtail: Or Psychotherapy and "Reality"

Why some problems persist while others are resolved.
This classic book, available in paperback for the very first time, explores why some people can successfully change their lives and others cannot. Here famed psychologist Paul Watzlawick presents what is still often perceived as a radical idea: that the solutions to our problems are inherently embedded in the problems themselves.
Tackling the age-old questions surrounding persistence and change, the book asks why problems arise and are perpetuated in some instances but easily resolved in others. Incorporating ideas about human communication, marital and family therapy, the therapeutic effects of paradoxes and of action-oriented techniques of problem resolution, Change draws much from the field of psychotherapy.

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.

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

Bavelas, Janet Beavin

Jackson, Don D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Watzlawick, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Watzlawick, Paul

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Watzlawick, Paul. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

How Real Is Real?: Communication, Disinformation, Confusion

Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution

Ultra-Solutions: How to Fail Most Successfully (English and German Edition)

Munchhausen's Pigtail, or Psychotherapy & "Reality" Essays and Lectures (English, German and German Edition)

The Language of Change: Elements of Therapeutic Communication

The Situation Is Hopeless But Not Serious (The Pursuit of Unhappiness)

Ultra-Solutions: How to Fail Most Successfully

Munchhausen's Pigtail: Or Psychotherapy and "Reality"

Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution

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