In this book Paul Watzlawick, who is a world authority on human communication and communication therapy, examines the basie elements of therapeutic communication. He points out that the usual procedure of interpreting the patient's communications into the rational and intellectual language of a particular therapeutic school of thought, contradicts the way in which the mind operates. Although a patient's communications in therapy are understood by the analyst to arise from unconscious, “dark” areas of his mind, analysts persist in trying to translate these communications, through interpretations, into the language of reason and consciousness. Watzlawick uses current evidence from brain research that identifies the differing function of right and left brain hemispheres, to refute the widely held belief that interpretation is the most effective form of therapeutic communication. He argues that the therapist must learn to