Communication & Consequences: Laws of Interaction (1995)

By Robert Norton and David Brenders

Routledge Communication Series

Hardcover, 280pp.

The communicative process allows, sometimes forces, one to make connections about the self and simultaneously how the self relates to the other and the world. The bonus of communicating is that one makes connections with other individuals. Not only are social connections made, but political, business, spiritual, esoteric, and functional connections as well. Each connection holds the possibility of teaching the person more about the self and the world.

This book helps individuals understand the dynamics of change particularly by focusing on enthymematic communication that can be used to effect change. It demonstrates the simultaneous potential of communication to both constrain and free the individual. The first part of the book establishes the theoretical ground by identifying the definitional issues, defining communication, and relating content and style to the sense-making function of interaction. The second part examines the primary consequences of interaction in both self and relational identity. Communication creates self-identification as well as relational identity, both of which provide a means of stabilizing the self and simultaneously allowing for change.

David Brenders is a professor of Communication Studies here in DePaul University's College of Communication.