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By Jurgen Ruesch and Gregory Bateson. (New York: Norton, 1951. Pp. 289. Price $4.50.)
Conversation and Communication: A Psychological Inquiry. By Joost A. M. Meerloo. (New York: International Universities Press, 1952. Pp. 239. Price $4.00.)
In Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry Professor Ruesch and Dr. Bateson seek to integrate current developmental trends in American psychiatry within a new theory of communication, and to criticize many assumptions of psychiatric epistemology in the light of their own epistemology based on their theory. The first half of the book, outlining the theory of communication, is written largely by Professor Ruesch, and the second more philosophical section largely by Dr. Bateson.
They regard the specialized conventions governing communication in any culture as specific for and determinant of that culture, and in formulating the manner in which communication works they utilize freely the theories of the cyberneticists. To communication itself they give the widest definition. Communication exists when A perceives that B perceives that A has sent a signal, and it operates at the intra-personal level of neural and humoral transmission as well as at the interpersonal group and cultural levels which depend chiefly on semantic transmission. Mental illness is seen as disorder of communication, the task of psychiatry is to improve communication, and