What is communication? This question is explored by psychiatrist Jürgen Ruesch and cultural anthropologist Gregory Bateson in their seminal book. They find an answer by examining disturbed communication: only those who correct mistakes truly communicate. Influenced by the developments in information theory, cybernetics, and second-order cybernetics, the two authors formulate a concept of communication in the early 1950s that encompasses all forms of human behavior, from solitary inner life (Husserl) to physical disturbances, interpersonal encounters, and cultures. Almost incidentally, they develop a concept aimed at a general theory of behavior. Ruesch and Bateson argue that every communication represents a selection from various possibilities, linking and separating events.