Talk:Unconscious communication

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Should this article be incorporated into the nonverbal communication article?

May be. Conan 14:10, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

No, these are very different things, though the articles should point to one another.

Verbal vs. non-verbal communication focus on the use (or not-use) of words. Sign language, visual language (Robert Horn & Scott McCloud type stuff,) linguistics, you are thinking a lot in that domain over there.

Conscious vs. un-conscious communications focuses on conscious vs. unconscious.

In any medium, you have to pay attention to what is conscious, unconscious, and everything in between. If you are writing a persuasive paper, you are thinking about the unconscious effects of your rhetoric technique. If you are creating clothing, you need to note what parts of the clothing pull people's conscious attention.

I believe that they are different axis, and require different articles with different focuses.

LionKimbro 21:56, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

There is now a nonverbal communication category, to which this maybe added later. The thing that really gets me is how much this article lacks. For example tonality, the tone of one's voice changes at times. This is quite important, as it has practical uses, e.g. in voice stress analysis. Another idea of significance is the choice of words:

e.g. "I can do it" AND "It can be done";

convey different meanings on the unconscious level. Dessydes 16:16, 23 May 2006 (UTC)


Speaking as a Ph.D. in communication, this article is dealing with an area of debate, and doing it poorly. Many scholars will insist that all communication must by definition be conscious; if you are interpreting another's behavior, it's YOU who are doing the communicating--they're not unless they have intent.
Moreover, "unconscious" refers in strict terms to the state of having no consciousness, e.g., comatose, knocked-out, perhaps asleep or hynotized (as the article notes). How is this to be equated with "subconscious" processes--those things you do when fully awake but of which you're not fully aware? That term, in the strictest Freudian sense, would include those uncontrolled expressions of face, vocal tone, posture, and other phenomena that are often (but not exclusively) associated with nonverbal communication.
I'd favor deletion of this article if it can't be re-done to explore the controversy properly, with authoritative citations. I might do it but I haven't the time. Truddick 13:15, 15 October 2006 (UTC)