ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes two types of messages involved in interpersonal communication: the simple message and the complex message. The latter can be broken down into the persuasive message and the evoking message. This classification system is designed to help to understand the communication process in the therapeutic hour. In order to provide new emotional experiences for the client, the therapist is consciously involved in coding messages designed to create new feelings in the client. The sender of a persuasive message subtly adds a covert manipulation or meaning to the manifest content of the communication—and does so with full awareness of what he is doing. The evoking message is a persuasive message with a very important twist. In the evoking message, the motivation and manipulation occur without the sender’s awareness. A person may want to impede recognition of certain of his needs because he wants to avoid having a respondent bring judgmental processes to bear on the message.
