An Introduction

My Purpose
I bring to this blog a theory of communication developed over decades of published research with families (Inside the Family, Jossey-Bass, Wiley) with couples, (My Lover, Myself, Riverhead Books, Putnam) and with executive teams (Reading the Room, accepted for publication by Jossey-Bass ). I call the theory that has emerged from this research, Structural Dynamics, and the practice that tests and applies this theory, Structural Intervention.

Structural Dynamics is a theory of face-to-face communication, which describes how and why communication works and does not work in the three domains-–Families, Couples, and Organizations and their teams.

Structural Intervention describes how to make these communicative systems work better when they fail or break down.

Target Audience
Until now my audience was professionals in the social and behavioral fields. In Subtexts I hope to extend and test the applicability of these ideas to a wider domain, public discourse.

My Sources
Subtexts draws its material from a wide a array of public sources—from the newspapers, magazines and books I read, from films and plays I see, and from commentary on and literary criticism of these tracts. Focusing on what general audiences are exposed to in the public domain does not rule out my drawing on what I have previously learned in the more private, behind closed door domains of couples, families, and teams. From all above sources, I will focus on leaders and leadership. Leaders play a singular role in all contexts, thus, are singled out by writers in all venues for special attention, interpretation, and critical scrutiny. They are, therefore, meaty subjects for this blog.

How It Works
Each blog posting begins on Twitter, where I list a specific source. For example: Frank Rich’s column on Obama, NYT, Sunday, January 5, 2010, Opinion. On Twitter, I provide a link both to Subtexts and to my website, Kantor Institute. The latter is more for professional colleagues than for a general audience.

Kantor Institute is a commercial entity, which trains therapists and consultants in the two theories described above. It charges for these services and for some materials, but like this blog seeks to operate in the spirit of open source, making some materials available without cost.

On my blog, using concepts from my own model for understanding human discourse, I subject excerpted quotes from the original source and proceed with my own commentary, a reconstructive analysis of the original--in a word, a commentary on a commentary. Where possible, the blog provides a direct link to the original source or merely cites it when this makes more sense.

Many of these concepts will be strange to the general reader and unfamiliar, but less strange to professionals unfamiliar with my work. Readers who know my work will be able to play catch up on more recently conceived ideas. Subtexts, I say without apology, seeks the interest of readers in all three categories. My reasons for wanting to reach the many, as opposed to the few, are as much personal as professional. Failed communication is rampant. It does incalculable damage. My life of work has been devoted to solving the riddles of broken relationships primarily based--I am convinced--on failed communication. I have benefited personally and professionally from these endeavors. It is time to give back. This blog and the powers of Web 2.0 is my way of doing that.