The theory of human communication by Paul Watzlawick
The theory of human communication of Watzlawick He argues that the problems of communication between people are due to the fact that we do not always have the same point of view as our interlocutors. The lack of compliance with certain communication rules causes failures in mutual understanding and pathological interaction patterns.
The contributions of Watzlawick are framed in the interactional approach of psychotherapy, which has its maximum exponent in the Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto. There, Watzlawick developed and systematized the work done by referents such as Don Jackson and Gregory Bateson. Their efforts were decisive in the emergence of systemic and family therapies.
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Life and work of Paul Watzlawick
Paul Watzlawick (1921-2007) was an Austrian psychotherapist who He was part of the Palo Alto Interactional School . He and other theoreticians from the Mental Research Institute developed a theory about communication that was a fundamental contribution to the future of this area and family therapy.
Watzlawick received his Ph.D. in philosophy and a degree in analytical psychology from the Carl Jung Institute in Zurich. He worked as a researcher at the University of El Salvador before joining the Mental Research Institute. He also worked as a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University.
From his research with families, Watzlawick described a systems theory centered on communication that would later be known as "interactional approach". This model conceives communication as an open system in which messages are exchanged through interaction.
Watzlawick's work was based on the double bond theory, developed by his colleagues Bateson, Jackson, Haley and Weakland to explain schizophrenia. However, Watzlawick's influence in the field of communication was probably greater than that of the other members of the Palo Alto School.
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The Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto
The Mental Research Institute, usually abbreviated as "MRI" , was founded by Don Jackson in 1958 in the city of Palo Alto, California. In many cases reference is made to the therapeutic tradition of the MRI as "Palo Alto Interactional School".
During the following decades the MRI became a very prestigious institution. There collaborated a large number of influential authors in the systemic, family and existentialist therapies, such as Richard Fisch, John Weakland, Salvador Minuchin, Irvin Yalom, Chloe Madanes, R. D. Laing and Watzlawick himself.
The Interactional School of Palo Alto promoted the development of short therapies based on scientific research that focus on the interaction between people, especially at the family level. Over the years, the orientation of the MRI has evolved to approaches close to constructivism.
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Axioms of communication theory
According to Watzlawick, Jackson, Beavin and Bavelas, Adequate communication depends on the fulfillment of a series of axioms . In case one of them fails, communicative misunderstandings may occur.
1. It is impossible not to communicate
Any human behavior has a communicative function, even if this is tried to avoid. We not only communicate through words, but also with our facial expressions, our gestures and even when we keep silent, as well as when we use the disqualification techniques, among which the symptom strategy stands out .
Watzlawick calls "disqualification techniques" to anomalous communication modes by which some people invalidate their own messages or those of others, for example leaving the sentences unfinished. The strategy of the symptom is to attribute the lack of communication to physical and mental states, such as drunkenness, sleep or headaches.
2. The content aspect and the relationship aspect
This theory states that human communication occurs on two levels: one of content and another of relationship. The content aspect is what we transmit verbally , that is, the explicit part of the messages. This communicative level is subordinated to non-verbal communication, that is, to the relationship aspect.
The relational aspects of the messages modify the interpretation that the receiver makes of their content, as happens with the tone of irony.Metacommunication, which consists of giving information about one's own verbal messages, depends on the relational level and is a necessary condition for successful communication between the sender and receiver.
3. Analogue and digital mode
This basic principle of Watzlawick's theory is intimately related to the previous one. In a synthetic way, this author states that communication has an analog and a digital modality; the first concept indicates a quantitative transmission of information, while at the digital level the message is qualitative and binary .
Thus, while in the content aspect of the communication the sending of information is digital (or a message is transmitted or not transmitted), the relational aspect is given in an analogical way; this implies that its interpretation is much less precise but potentially richer from a communicative point of view.
4. Punctuation gives meaning
Watzlawick believed that verbal and non-verbal communication have a structural component that is analogous to the punctuation proper to written language. By sequencing the content of the message we are able to interpret causality relationships between events , as well as to share information with the interlocutor satisfactorily.
People often focus only on our point of view, ignoring that of those with whom we speak and understanding our own behavior as a reaction to that of the interlocutor. This leads to the erroneous belief that there is a single correct and linear interpretation of events, when in reality the interactions are circular.
5. Symmetrical and complementary communication
The division between symmetric and complementary communication refers to the relationship that exists between two interlocutors . When both have an equivalent power in the exchange (eg, they know the same information) we say that the communication between them is symmetric.
On the other hand, the complementary communication occurs when the interlocutors have a different informative power. There are several types of complementary exchanges: one of the interlocutors can try to neutralize the exchange, dominate the interaction or facilitate the other person to do so.
