The authors of this book are rightfully considered the founders of the promising concept of the Palo Alto school of family systemic psychotherapy. The study of human communication undertaken by P. Vaclavik, D. Beavin and D. Jackson showed that it is a complex multi-level process, understood in terms of context, content, encoding-decoding and message transmission. The meaning of human existence is revealed at the level of meta-communication or relationship, when the exchange of meaningless phrases and even just silence contain an existential message addressed to another: “Confirm how I define myself!” An accessible and at the same time logically structured presentation and numerous examples from the field of psychopathology, fiction, art, undoubtedly make the book interesting and useful not only for those who, by profession, turn to the interpretation of human behavior: psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, - but also to a wide range of readers.

Pragmatics of human communications: Study of patterns, pathologies and paradoxes of interaction. / Per. from English A. Suvorova. - M.: April-Press, EKSMO Press Publishing House, 2000. - 320 p. (Series “Psychology. XX century”).