Workshop: Communication

Micasa Hotel Apartments, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Saturday, 15 June 2002

By Daniel Tung

The concept of the Johari Window (Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham) seems to be an excellent way of graphically visualising the relationship between individuals and understanding oneself. It is simply a window with four quadrants.

The four quadrants represent the following.

Open: The open area is that part of our conscious self - our attitudes, behaviour, motivation, values, way of life - of which we are aware and which is known to others. We move within this area with freedom. We are "open books". The large the area, the greater is the person's contact with reality and the more available are his resources to himself and his associates.

Hidden: Others cannot know our hidden area, unless we disclose it. There is that which we freely keep within ourselves, and that which we retain out of fear. The degree to which we share ourselves with others (disclosure) is the degree to which we can be known.

Blind: There are things about ourselves which we do not know, but that others can see more clearly; or things we imagine to be true to ourselves for a variety of reason but that others do not see at all. The simplest illustration of this quadrant is a mannerism in speech and gesture of which the person is unaware but which is quite obvious to others. For example, a tendency to dominate may be perfectly obvious to everyone but not in the least obvious to the person who dominates.

Unkown: We are more rich and complex than that which we and others know, but from time to time something happens - something from our unconscious is revealed. Then
we "know" what we have never "known" before. Wee know this quadrant exists because both the individual and person with whom he is associating discover from time to time new behaviour or new motives, which were really there all along. An individual may surprise himself with others, for example, by taking over the group's direction during a critical period, or another person may discover that he has great ability in bringing warring factions together.

The figure below illustrates how a person looks when he is in a completely new group situation or when he first meets another person. Social convention provides a pattern for getting acquainted and it is considered inappropriate to act too friendly too soon or to reveal too much. This same constricted picture may be typical of clients who come for counselling as they are characterised by suspicion, distrust and anxiety.

The next figure shows that the larger the first quadrant, the closer to self realisation is the individual in the sense that he is meeting his needs, utilising his own abilities and at the same time making himself more available to others. Relationships that conform to this figure generally result in greater understanding, co-operation and freedom of activity.