The art of (non)communication

https://youtu.be/8kLBAWutvdw?list=PL3B1608040F62D0C3

I had this client today who had aphasia, a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate, from a previous stroke. I could tell by the interactions coming from his spouse that this used to be a man who stayed on point about everything in life. Meticulous. Particular in his ways. You know the way the grease of the pants folds across the shoes. Keeping a sequential structure in his daily routine. You get the picture. And here he is unable to vocalize his needs. His desires. His frustration. It’s more that one becomes in tune with all the other aspects of communication that he would feel validated in his attempts to express his needs. Facial gestures and change in energy. That kind of thing. Which can get really tiresome. For both parties involved. I could tell that he already had a tendency to simply stop trying what he wanted to “say”. Anyways, there’s just something that tucks at my heart when I encounter people who have a need to express themselves and are unable to do so. There’s this movie “ The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” about the editor of the french magazine Elle, who suffered a massive stroke at age 43 and ended up with locked-in syndrome. He could only blink his left eyelid (they actually sewed his right eye shut). He managed to compose and edit the entire book the movie is based on, which is his life story, by blinking that one eye. Blinking his eye yes or no to every individual letter presented to him to spell out the words. Every individual letter. The movie clearly shows how people talk at you, but not to you. The art of communication. I am one who needs you to be “with me” if I want to express something in particular to you. For the two of us to comprehend the intention of my communication. Not just the linguistic part of this seemingly lost art. But the part where you and I simply understand the matter at heart.