New Book by Bernhard Poerksen and Friedemann Schulz von Thun

Hamburg Communication Psychology – Now Available Worldwide in English

Over the years, we have had to disappoint many people who asked for English-language books introducing the concepts of Friedemann Schulz von Thun.

The Miteinander reden (Let's Talk!) series has been translated into numerous languages, including Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Korean, Croatian, Dutch, Polish, Spanish, and several others. English articles and teaching materials have also been available. Yet one important piece was still missing: a professionally published, internationally available English edition of a key work on Hamburg Communication Psychology.

That is about to change.

On 13 July 2026, Routledge will publish Communication as an Art of Living: The Philosophy and Practice of Talking with Each Other by Bernhard Poerksen and Friedemann Schulz von Thun, translated by Manuela Thurner. The book is the English edition of the German volume Kommunikation als Lebenskunst. Philosophie und Praxis des Miteinander-Redens, originally published in 2014.

"It is an introduction to Friedemann Schulz von Thun's communication psychology in dialogic form, inspired by the great questions of human existence: the search for meaning, truth, and happiness in the face of finitude, illness, and death."

— Bernhard Poerksen

Discover and order the book from Routledge.

What Is the Book About?

Why, the psychologist Friedemann Schulz von Thun and the media studies scholar Bernhard Poerksen ask, do com- munication recipes never work? What does it mean to be silent? With how many ears do we listen? Why are mis- understandings normal? How can we offer criticism without being hurtful? How can we escape the maelstrom of conflict and polarization? Is communication an art of living?

In this book, Friedemann Schulz von Thun and Bernhard Poerksen, two prominent representatives of their respective fields, provide an introduction to modern communication psychology in dialogic form – humorous and serious, and fascinated by the big questions of human existence, the search for meaning, truth, and happiness in the face of mortality, illness, and death. Models such as the inner team, the communication square, and the value square are presented to an English-speaking audience for the first time. These models and practical tools suitable for everyday use have long been a fixture of coaching, mediation, and consultancy in the German-speaking world. They are taught at schools and universities and have provided new insights to millions of people on the path to successful communication.

“This book brings into view the programmatic core of humanistic psychology – rather than focusing on defects, deficiencies, and pathologies, it recognizes and con- centrates on opportunities for personal growth and on human potential. Bernhard Poerksen and Friedemann Schulz von Thun offer communication tools for everyone – paving the way towards better communication and perhaps also to a better life. Fascinating.”

— Michael Murphy (Founder of Esalen Institute, the birthplace of the Human Potential Movement)

Two authors, two perspectives:

Bernhard Poerksen, born 1969, is professor of media studies at the University of Tuebingen with a particular research interest in the new media age. His books about systemic thinking (e.g., With the cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster and the neurobiologist Humberto Maturana) are also available in English. In 2008 he was selected “Professor of the Year” and honored for his teaching. His most recent book publication in English is Digital Fever: Taming the Big Business of Disinformation (2022).

Friedemann Schulz von Thun, born 1944, was professor of psychology at the University of Hamburg from 1975 until 2009. He became widely known for his trilogy Miteinander reden (Let’s Talk!), which has long been considered a standard work in the field of communication. Since 2007, he has directed the Schulz von Thun Institute for Communication. He holds an honorary doctorate in economics from the University of St. Gallen and is still active as a consultant and coach. His bestselling books are among the most widely read works of psychology in the German-speaking countries.

Coming Full Circle

The publication of this book for an English-speaking readership carries a special significance.

One of the major intellectual roots of Hamburg Communication Psychology lies in humanistic psychology, which was strongly influenced by developments in the United States—not least by Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and Ruth Cohn.

As a young Jewish woman, Ruth Cohn fled Germany in 1933 and later emigrated to the United States. There, during the 1950s and 1960s, she developed Theme-Centered Interaction. In 1966, she founded the Workshop Institute for Living-Learning in New York. After returning to Europe, she became an important teacher of Friedemann Schulz von Thun. He himself describes meeting her as the beginning of an “apprenticeship with Ruth Cohn”—in Theme-Centered Interaction, Gestalt therapy, and the intellectual world of humanistic psychology.

In this sense, the English edition brings the story full circle: ideas that also originated in the United States and were brought back to Europe by Ruth Cohn became part of Hamburg Communication Psychology. Now, further developed and combined with Friedemann Schulz von Thun’s models, they are returning to the English-speaking world.

In the words of Bernhard Poerksen:

“From Hamburg, he [Friedo] revolutionized and revived the humanistic psychology that had emerged in the United States and has since largely fallen silent. (…) Over the past years and decades, his communication psychology has become increasingly existential and comprehensive, and increasingly conscious of its own depth. More and more, it has addressed the totality of human existence in all its dimensions—its joys, its darker sides, and its implicit spirituality. It has moved, it seems to me, toward a philosophy of life, with the idea of congruence as its overarching guiding ideal: the fit with the person—the inner self—and the truth of the situation—the external circumstances.”

We are delighted that, with Communication as an Art of Living, Hamburg Communication Psychology is now becoming accessible to a wider international audience.

Communication as an Art of Living
The Philosophy and Practice of Talking with Each Other
Bernhard Poerksen and Friedemann Schulz von Thun
Routledge, publication date: 13 July 2026

Discover and order the book from Routledge.