Disturbed Communication

Abstract

When people meet, they communicate. This is inevitable. People communicate verbally or non-verbally. In doing so, they exchange messages and many kinds of explicit and implicit messages. Let us now ask ourselves: When is communication successful? Or vice versa: What hinders or disturbs success? In order to get to the bottom of this matter, we deal with communication disturbances. In more detail, we use the axioms of Watzlawick et al. to derive possible sources of communication failure and conclude how we can avoid them. Communication blocks mean that communication between the parties involved is not only disrupted but prevented by the other party. In order to find out when this is the case, we will focus on the 12 communication roadblocks according to Thomas Gordon and develop strategies to counteract them.