75939 - Interpersonal Communication Techniques (1) (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

The student, at the end of the module, knows the main theoretical models and the main techniques of effective communication in interpersonal relationships, namely self and other awareness, assertiveness and emotional centering.

Course contents

The teaching will mainly focus on scientific knowledge of the psychological aspects that affect the phenomena and processes of human communication, relationality and emotional and affective dynamics, involved in the interpersonal and social interactions of daily life.

The perspective used in the analysis of the different theoretical and methodological models, essentially refers to the tradition of research and to the most recent results of humanistic and existential psychology, characterized by the need to enhance the person.

In particular, through the narration of events and stories of existence, the critical reflection on the human condition and on the possible meanings assumed by communication and relational dynamics will be further enriched. Therefore, in the proposed thematic path the following contents will be addressed:

Humanistic and existential psychology: “a way of being” and of communicating
The person-centered approach by Carl Rogers
The person-to-person relationship: phenomenology of the communicative relationship
Active listening, existential empathy and awareness in interpersonal relationships
Thomas Gordon's Model of Effective Relationship
Pathology of communication and discommunication
The experience of the body, health and disease
Psychology of emotions
The anguish of death, the repressed factor in the human sciences
The narration of stories of existence:

Dibs in search of self
Genie: flying from silence to speech
Ellen West and the glass wall of solitude
Ruth and the madness of red stockings
Maya: family mystifications and paradoxes

Readings/Bibliography

• Vignati Renato, Lo sguardo sulla persona. Psicologia delle relazioni umane, Padova, Libreriauniversitaria, 2019.
• Rogers Carl (1980), Un modo di essere, Firenze, Giunti, 2012.

Altre letture di approfondimento consigliate:

• Axline Virginia M. (1964), La storia di Dibs, Milano, Mondadori, !969
• Anolli Luigi, Prima lezione di psicologia della comunicazione, Bari, Laterza, 2010
• Babini Valeria P., Liberi tutti. Manicomi e psichiatri in Italia: una storia del Novecento, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009.
• Camus Albert (1942), Il mito di Sisifo, Milano, Bompiani, 2015.
• De Marchi Luigi, Conversazioni Esistenziali per una Psicologia Esistenziale Umanistica, Roma, Alpes, 2015.
• Arthur W. Frank (1995-2013), Il narratore ferito. Corpo, malattia ed etica, Torino, Einaudi, 2022
• Gaino Alberto, Il manicomio dei bambini. Storie di istituzionalizzazione, Torino, ed. GruppoAbele, 2017.
• Rymer Russ (1993), In volo dal silenzio, Milano, Baldini&Castoldi, 1994
• Gordon Thomas (2002), Relazioni efficaci, Bari, la meridiana, 2012.
• Laing Ronald (1964), Normalità e follia nella famiglia, Torino, Einaudi, 1970
• Laing Ronald (1978), Conversando con i miei bambini, Torino, Einaudi, 2000.
• May Rollo (1969), Psicologia esistenziale, Milano, Astrolabio, 1970.
• Kirschenbaum H., Henderson V. L. (1989), Dialoghi di Carl Rogers, Bari, la meridiana, 2008.

Teaching methods

Frontal and participated lessons

Exercises, individual and collective analyzes

Assessment methods

The final exam will consist of a test with multiple choice questions, in presence, integrated with that of Psychology of Narration (M-Z) (1).

1. the mastery and the achievement of an organic vision of the acquired contents

2. the level of assimilation and critical-conceptual elaboration of the proposed contents

3. the ability to orientate among the main interpretative lines

Teaching tools

Video projector, video and audio files, film projections, online materials.

Office hours

See the website of Renato Vignati