Chapter 1, The Paradox of Culture Summary and Analysis

Edward T. Hall, experienced in psychoanalysis and anthropology, considers contemporary Western culture, asserting that Western man is constrained by his linear way of thinking and creates chaos by denying that part of himself that integrates while emphasizing those parts of his existence that fragment. This is further exacerbated by the belief that this system is the only true system. Hall's emphasis is on the nonverbal realm of culture, rather than philosophy, religion, language and art.

Modern American society cannot escape from the linear, compartmentalized way of thinking. These cultural undercurrents raise impediments to the enactment of the common good. Anthropologists consider culture to be a series of situational models for behavior and thought, and use abstract models of the culture, although the models are only part of the reality of a whole culture...