Introduction

Ann Long

pp. 1-8

in: Ann Long (ed), Interaction for practice in community nursing, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1999

Abstract

The amazing and enigmatic world of communication is a world we cannot touch and yet it touches every aspect of our being. It is a world that surrounds us like a transparent veil and yet it helps us to reach out and be touched by, as well as to touch, the hearts, minds, feelings and souls of others. Through the channel of communication we make the decision either to "be receptive" and enter communion with others, thus becoming emotionally intimate, or to withdraw and distance ourselves from other human beings.