The Interactional View
of Paul Watzlawick
S
Paul Watzlawick
S Born on July 25, 1921, and died at the age of 85.
S He was the principal investigator at the Mental Research Institute
of Palo Alto, California
S A clinical proffesor of psychiatry at Stanford University, and was
a private psychotherapist as well
S He was one of about 20 scholars and therapists who were inspired
by and worked with anthropologist Gregory Bateson.
S The common denominator that continues to draw the Palo Alto
Group together is a commitment to studying interperesonal
interaction as part of an entire system.
The Family as a System
S He believes that in order to understand the movement of
any single figure in the family system, one has to examine
the communcation patterns among all its members.
S This systems approach suggests that interpersonal
relationships are complicated defying simplistic
explanations of why family members do what they do.
S Watzlawick warned that each family plays a one-of-a-kind
game with homemade rules.
Math Metaphor
S Relationships are complex functions in the same sense that
mathematical functions link multiple variables.
X= b + 2c/a – 5d
Axioms of Interpersonal
Communications
S Axion # 1  One cannot not communicate
S Even if you are not actually talking or doing anything, you are
still communicating, expressing nonvervals. As facial,
expresions, the way you are sitting, or your silence in genereal.
S Axion # 2  Communication = Content + Relationship
S Content = what is said
S Relationship = how is said
Relational Aspect
S
S
Watzlawick referred to the
realtional aspect of interaction as
metacommunication, which
means communicaiton about
communication.
Relationship messages are always
the most imporant element in
any communication.
Content
Relationship
Report
Command
What is said
How is said
Computer data
Computer program
Words
Punctuation
Verbal channel
Nonverbal channel
Communication metacommunication
S Axiom # 3  The nature of the relationship depends on
how both parties puntuate the communication sequence.
S This describes how each person perceived, or punctuates, a
communication sequence.
S Punctuate means interpreting an ongoing sequence of events
by labeling one event as the cause and the following event as
the response.
Symmetrical or Complementary
Axiom # 4
S Watzlawick breaks down family communication into
symmetrical and complementary.
S Symmetrical communication is based on equal power.
S Complementary communication is based on differences in
power.
By Changing the Rules
S Family therapists note that when one person in a distresssed
family gets better, another member often gets worse.
S Dysfuctional families confirm the saying “The more things
change, the more they stay the same”
S According to Watzlawick, effective change for the whole
family will come about only when members are helped to
step outside the system and see the self-defeating nature of
the rules under which they’re playing.
S What Maise Knew
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGzb1nBBl4
S Undauntedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95NHTrLB
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