You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In my work with parents and children, I have become increasingly aware that faulty communication is a common occurrence and an important factor in the development of disturbed personalities. Communication with others is a basic human need. One of the more distressing feelings a person can have is to feel alone and helpless in a potentially hostile world. Dr. Horney recognized this feeling and called it “basic anxiety.”1 Whenever we feel alienated from others or ourselves, we experience intense terror, and all our measures are directed toward restoring contact. It is quite likely that the child who has given up all hope of making contact becomes the autistic child.
In our attempts to establish verbal communication, we engage in conversation, which involves sending messages with the expectation of a response. A study of these messages shows that a message may be sent with one meaning which is plain and distinct, or it may have several meanings. When the message has more than one meaning the speaker is communicating on several levels, often without his awareness. These levels of communication are: 1) the literal or conscious level, 2) the implied level, and 3) the unconscious level.
For example, let us imagine that a group of people is sitting in a room and one person says: “It is chilly in this room.” From the viewpoint of the speaker, this statement can represent one of the following messages. On the literal level: “The temperature in this room is low and I feel chilly.” On the implied level: “I would like someone to do something about my feeling chilly.” Or on the unconscious level: “I should have known that it would be chilly here.”
Even as the speaker is communicating on several levels, the message can be received on the same three levels. Therefore, the message can be