Biography of Paul Watzlawick (1921-2007)

"Famous phrases by Paul Watzlawick"

Paul Watzlawick (1921-2007) was an outstanding psychotherapist, communication theorist and Austrian-American author who had a significant impact on the field of psychology. His work focused on human communication and interaction, And his revolutionary ideas have been influential in family therapy, brief therapy focused on solutions and communication theory.

Content

• Biography of Paul Watzlawick
• Contributions to Psychology
• The five Watzlawick axioms
  • Axioma 1. It is impossible not to communicate
  • Axioma 2. Content and relationship
  • Axioma 3.  The score
  • Axioma 4. Digital and analog
  • Axioma 4. Symmetric or complementary
• Failed communication
• Successful communication
  • Bibliography

Biography of Paul Watzlawick

Paul Watzlawick was born on July 25, 1921 in Villach, Austria. It was the second of four children of a middle class family. During his childhood and adolescence, Watzlawick attended school in Klagenfurt, the capital of the Carintia region.

In 1939, Watzlawick began studying philosophy, languages ​​and literature at the University of Venice, Italy, but their studies were interrupted by the burst of World War II. At the beginning of the war, Watzlawick returned to Austria, where he was recruited in the German army and sent to the eastern front.

After the war, Watzlawick worked as a language teacher in Vienna before emigrating to the United States in 1951. Over there, He studied psychiatry and psychotherapy at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, where he met Don D. Jackson and Jay Haley, who would become their collaborators and close friends.

It was in Berkeley where Watzlawick became one of the founders of brief therapy focused on solutions, along with Jackson and Haley. Brief therapy focused on solutions focuses on helping patients identify and achieve their objectives in the shortest possible time, using effective communication techniques and problem solving.

How brief therapy works and solutions

Contributions to Psychology

In 1960, Watzlawick joined the Palo Alto Mental Research Institute, California, where he continued working as a theoretical and communication therapist until his death in 2007.

Throughout his career, Watzlawick was interested in the way communication affects our interpersonal relationships, as well as how they can be used effective communication tools to solve problems in human relationships And in therapy. In his work, he developed several important theories on communication, cognition and human behavior that have had a significant impact on the field of psychotherapy.

One of Watzlawick's main ideas is the notion that communication is a fundamental part of the way people build and maintain interpersonal relationships. According to him, The way we talk and behave with others can have a significant impact on the quality of our relationships. He also suggested that many communication problems are due to the way people interpret and respond to the messages they receive from others.

Another of Watzlawick's main contributions was the idea that Problems can be understood as dysfunctional communication patterns. Instead of focusing on the problems in themselves, Watzlawick advocated addressing the ways in which people communicate around problems. By changing the way people communicate, more effective and lasting solutions can be created for problems.

Watzlawick received numerous awards and honors for their contributions to the field of psychotherapy and communication. In 1997, he was appointed honorary member of the American Association of Psychology. He was also awarded the award for the achievement of life in family therapy by the American Family Therapy Association in 2000.

Paul Watzlawick wrote 18 books that were published in 85 editions and more than 150 articles and book chapters. Some of his books are "pragmatic of human communication" (1967), "The change" (with John Weakland and Richard Fiscch) (1974), "Is reality real?"(1976)," The Language of Change "(1977)," The situation is desperate, but not serious: in search of unhappiness "(1983)," The invented reality: how do we know what we believe we know? (Contributions to constructivism) ”(1984) and Ultra-Solutions, or,“ how to fail more successfully (1988) ”.

Since 1960, he resided and worked all his life in the city and at the Californian University of Palo Alto, California, until his death at the age of 85 years.

The five Watzlawick axioms

The Watzlawick's human communication axioms They were included in the 1967 book "The pragmatic of human communication: a study of interaction patterns, pathologies and paradoxes."This is a fundamental work in the theory of communication and was written with the collaboration of Janet Beavin-Bavelas and Don Jackson, two of the Watzlawick colleagues in the mental Research Institute of Palo Alto, California.

Axioma 1. It is impossible not to communicate

The first and most famous axiom of human communication is "You can't not communicate". What this double negative means is that we have no option to decide whether or not to communicate. Everything we say or do is transmitted as some type of message. Even if we do nothing, that is already a message.

Axioma 2. Content and relationship

All communication has a content level and a relationship level, The last classifies the first, so it is a metacommunication. Watzlawick said that the words used in communication obtain their meaning for the context of the relationship between the speaker and the listener. If someone "loser" is called, the word means a thing if the person is a close friend, but it can mean a totally different thing if it is a casual relationship. This represents the second axiom: the context defines the content.

Axioma 3.  The score

Watzlawick also argued that Communication is defined by the "score" or associated individual events within the flow of communication. Imagine that we are roasting a steak and a friend interrupts us to suggest that we upload the intensity of the fire. Then we respond angrily for the comment. In each case: we, the friend or an observer "score" this interaction in a way, can be seen as an interruption or as the suggestion of we do not know what we are doing, for example. In this third axiom of Watzlawick argues that the nature of the communication relationship depends on how participants score in it. The nature of a relationship depends on the score we carry out on the communication of the participants. In many cases, communication implies a true mess of messages flying in all directions. This applies especially to nonverbal messages. The "score" to which it refers It is the process of organizing message groups in meanings. This is analogous to the written language score. In any case, the score can sometimes alter the meaning considerably.

Axioma 4. Digital and analog

Communication has two parts, which Watzlawick referred as "digital" and "analog". Digital elements are elements with universally understood meanings, such as words or gestures that have certain literal translations. Tell someone, "Sit in that chair," for example, it would be a digital message. Analog elements, however, are merely representative or referential, since they are often not verbal. Aiming a chair like a sign for someone feels, it is a type of analog communication. According to Watzlawick, all messages are built of both elements: digital and analog.

Axioma 4. Symmetric or complementary

The final axiom establishes that Each communication transaction can be "symmetric" or "complementary", According to the power balance between the parties. In a symmetrical relationship, people are treated with each other as the same. In a complementarity relationship, they will be unequal. In this case it could be an interaction between father and son, boss and employee, or simply an aggressive person and a shy person. These relationships determine the course of communication.

Failed communication

For Watzlawick it is impossible that there is no communication between two individuals. According to their theory, the "lack of communication" is because people have different points of view while speaking, and if the axioms are altered, communication is likely to fail.

Failures in communication between individuals appear when:

• They communicate with a different code
• The code in which the message has been altered within the channel.
• There is a false interpretation of the situation.
• The level of relationship is confused by the level of content.
• There is a bad score in the sequence of the facts.
• Digital communication does not match analog communication.

Successful communication

Communication between individuals is good when:

• The message code is correct.
• Alterations in the code are avoided within the channel.
• The recipient situation is taken into account.
• The picture in which communication is located is analyzed.
• The score in the sequence of the facts is well defined.
• Digital communication agrees with analog communication.
• The communicator has a good receiver.

Bibliography

• Watzlawick, p., Beavin, J. H., & Jackson, D. D. (1981). Theory of human communication: interactions, pathologies and paradoxes. Herder.
• Watzlawick, p. (1988). The eye of the observer: Contributions to constructivism. Gedisa.
• Watzlawick, p. (2005). Is reality real? Confusion, misinformation, communication: what can we really know? Gedisa.
• Watzlawick, p., Weakland, j. H., & Fisch, R. (1974). Change: formulation and resolution of human problems. Herder.
• Watzlawick, p. (2012). The invented reality. Gedisa.
• Watzlawick, p. (2013). The pragmatic of human communication: how individuals create reality. Herder.
• Watzlawick, p., & Krieg, P. (nineteen ninety six). Essays on Psychotherapy and Family Circles. Herder