It takes all sorts --- Eric, the risk a mistaken uptake is always there, agreed! Context aside, some people are inclined to over-interpret utterances because that is their take on the world whereas others (more 'thick skinned') seem quite oblivious to nuance and implications.

This distinction plays out at a cultural level as well, and I don't only have national cultures in mind. Insular communities (where what goes round may come round to slap you in the face) tend to communicate in more coded fashions and therefore read more into what little has been said. Shrinks have to be more sensitive to implicit meaning than the 'man on the street'.

The challenge is that we cannot possibly follow up on everybody's uptake all of the time, which is why communities so quickly develop conventions of communication - margins within which they tacitly agree to operate.

Source author: Biljana Scott biscott@diplomacy.edu