“You can’t not communicate!” This quote by Paul Watzlawick is reality. As soon as humans come into contact with other people, they are in exchange with their environment. The ability to communicate is important for human survival, but also often leads to conflicts and misunderstandings.
What is communication?
The term communication is used to describe the process of transmitting or exchanging messages between people or, in technological terms, between the sender and the receiver. The term communication is used to describe the process of transmitting or exchanging messages between people or, in technological terms, between the sender and the receiver. Verbal communication (the exchange of ideas, thoughts, and opinions) takes place through language. However, non-verbal communication also exists. This takes place via facial expressions, gestures and eye contact of the communication partners. This visual perception also allows people to communicate through writing and symbols. In addition to the literal content of speech and visual experiences, the way people speak and the way they touch are also communicative. For example, people with disabilities of one sensory organ are also able to communicate extensively with the environment with surprising ease because they can use other ways to do so.
Function and task
Humans are social beings who interact with others through communication. The better a person communicates, the easier it is for him to assert his needs. By means of his communicative abilities, man can communicate when he is not well and what his needs are. A basic drive of man is his ability to relate and for this he always needs a counterpart. If man is alone and cannot communicate, he easily becomes ill – especially if this state was not freely chosen. On the physical level, in addition to the sensory organs and the brain, the larynx is also involved in the communication processes. With the ears the messages are received, with the eyes we see how the counterpart acts and behaves, through the skin and the sense of touch we feel temperature, aggression or love. The received stimuli and information are interpreted by the brain after receipt and lead to a reactive communication action. The anatomy of the larynx is responsible for the human being’s ability to speak. The larynx, where voice production takes place, sits just below the throat. If you swallow consciously, you can easily feel the location of the larynx; it moves up and down as you swallow. Sounds and speech are produced by vibration of the vocal cords located in the larynx. These are able to vibrate and for this reason can produce sounds with the help of the escaping breath from the lungs. Many communication processes occur naturally. For most everyday situations, this is quite sufficient. But misunderstandings when communicating are also not uncommon. For example, if facial expressions do not match what is being said or something is said that is different from what is meant, then communication becomes complicated.
Illnesses and complaints
Aside from misunderstandings in communication that occur due to unclear messages, physical and psychological limitations or medical conditions also exist that can complicate communication. Physical complications include diseases of the vocal cords and larynx – the spectrum here ranges from inflammation to cancer. If areas of the brain important for communication are destroyed, as can be the case after a stroke, this is considered a neurologically caused speech disorder, also called aphasia. It would be wrong to call aphasia a mental disorder or intellectual disability. Rather, it is a disorder of the ability to communicate, as speech comprehension, speech production, or writing and reading are no longer possible for the sufferer. In contrast to a speech disorder, no motor problems are the cause of a speech disorder. Only the ability to speak is impaired, not the ability to express speech clearly and correctly. A typical speech disorder, on the other hand, is stuttering. People who stutter experience restrictions in the flow of speech and language. These processes cannot be controlled voluntarily.The only way left for those affected is to see a speech therapist if they want to improve their communication skills and gain a more self-confident approach to their disorder. The term for a hasty, unclear and in speed irregular style of speech is “polter”; the speech therapist is also the specialist for this. A particularly extreme form of psychologically caused restrictions in the ability to communicate is mutism – the so-called psychogenic silence. That is, there is no detectable defect in the speech organs and yet the person with mutism remains persistently silent; severe manifestations of mutism often occur in conjunction with a psychiatric illness such as depression.