Why no communication recipes work? Why is normal misunderstandings occur? How to criticize without harming others? How critical is exercised without harming others? Is the art of communicating with others also an art of living?

This is a book about the big and small problems of communication, a dialogue between psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun and media specialist Bernhard Poerksen is. With humor, rigor and courage to debate and ask clarifying nuances, the authors develop the central models of the psychology of communication (the square of communication, the metaphor of the vicious circle and the image of the internal team, the situation model and the ideal of the tune) and show how humanistic psychology and systemic thinking, as well as the fields of internal and external forces, they can interact productively. In addition, it demonstrates how to implement effectively these different models and perspectives (in coaching, teaching and intercultural communication).

The book concludes with a discussion about happiness and death, and the question of what they can provide communication with the fact of his own finitude. Thus the picture of a thought that does not offer prefabricated recipes for better living, but rather instruments of reflection and mental guides to find individual solutions, consistent with self is created.