ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the very preliminary analysis about the kinds of issues discussed in the mediation sessions. By allowing the disputants to continue interacting, the mediator in effect reinforces this disorganization. Increasing the organization by pulling out one issue at a time and directing the disputants to talk about one issue at a time, the mediator begins the problem-solving process. Disputants frequently attack one another’s positions in mediation. This strategy is probably the least rational but the most predictable because disputants enter mediation in the context of wounded personal identities. The chapter proposes the idea that understanding a couple’s communication patterns in mediation requires an examination of three communication dimensions: content, strategy, and relationship. It discusses the relational, content, and strategic dimensions of interpretation with respect to “patterns” of communication that are likely to emerge.
