Paul Watzlawick
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Watzlawick PhD (July 25, 1921 - March 31, 2007) was a theoretician in Communication Theory and Radical Constructivism. He also commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy. He lived and worked in California until his death in 2007 in Palo Alto.
He formulated 5 axioms. They are:
- It is not possible to not communicate. - Every behavior is some kind of communication.
- Every communication has a content. In addition, there is 'metainformation', which says how the communicator wats to be understood
- All parters involved in a communication process also interpret their own behaviour during communication
- Human communication involves both verbal and non-verbal communication. In addition to the spoken words, there are is also a non-spoken part (gestures, behavior, intonation..) which is part of the comminication.
- Communication between humans is either symmertric or complementary. This is based on whether the relationship of those communicating is based on differences or parity
