The properties and function of human communication.

Suggests that the styles and structures of contemporary interpersonal communication are responsible for many mental and behavioral disorders

This book addresses questions that have concerned rhetoricians, literary theorists, and philosophers since the time of the pre-Socratics and the Sophists: How do people come to believe and to act on the basis of communicative experiences? What is the nature of reason and rationality in these experiences? What is the role of values in human decision making and action? How can reason and values be assessed? In answering these questions, Professor Fisher proposes a reconceptualization of humankind as homo narrans, that all forms of human communication need to be seen as stories—symbolic interpretations of aspects of the world occurring in time and shaped by history, culture, and character; that individuated forms of discourse should be considered "good reasons"—values or value-laden warrants for believing or acting in certain ways; and that a narrative logic that all humans have natural capacities to employ ought to be conceived of as the logic by which human communication is assessed.

The concept of intersubjectivity, explicit or implicit, has emerged as a common denominator in approaches to interpersonal engagements in early infancy and children's understanding of others' thought and emotion. This 1999 book brings together the most senior international figures in psychology, psychopathology, sociology and primatology to address the key question of the role of intersubjectivity in early ontogeny. Together, they offer an interesting perspective on child development, learning and communication and highlight important comparisons with processes in autistic development and in infant ape development. The book is divided into four parts, focusing on intersubjective attunement in human infancy; companionship and emotional responsiveness in early childhood; imitation, emotion and understanding in primate communication; and intersubjective attunement and emotion in language learning and language use. It is an invaluable resource for researchers in emotion and communication across the social and behavioural sciences.

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.