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The author, a well known psychoanalyst, has written several valuable books dealing with both individual and mass psychology, and it is therefore with a great deal of experience in recording observations that he gives us the results of his thinking and work on conversation and communication as human activities and relationships.
The book emphasizes psychoanalytical and social concepts and is replete with personal associations and clinical contacts over a period of 25 years. Those who tend to take communication phenomena for granted should be considerably surprised to learn how complex the whole matter becomes in terms of the numerous components that enter it. Archaic communication, gesture language, picture language, organ language, baby language, and various emotional expressions become integrated and function in various ways.
Man is the symbolizing animal, and we have in this book the account of how he uses language in all of its ramifications as a communicator and a listener, and also what might be done to improve him in these respects. It should be read by all advanced students.