ABSTRACT
ONE assumption of many researchers is that communication in- fluences the evolution of our relationships with others and is simultaneously influenced by the definitions we attribute to these relationships. As Bateson (1936) has cogently argued, communica- tion via language is the primary vehicle through which our relationships are defined. Systems theorists have long understood the importance of view- ing the whole system in a relationship, particularly the interdependence of the verbal messages we exchange. Rapaport (1968) and Lewin (1968), for example, both recognized that verbal language must be characterized in the way it works — namely, as interdependent linked messages.
