On the Relation Between Well-Being and Communication: the Ethical Turn in Conceptualization of Communication with Case Analyses of Negotiation and Decision-Making in Pepfar

Conceptualization of communication has a crucial effect on communication itself and on communication research. This paper explores how communication affects and is affected by psychological well-being with case examples from an HIV/AIDS international treatment program(PEPFAR) implemented in Southern Africa. It calls for a re-evaluation of Weaver's metaphor on communication as exchange of information and develops Buber's and Peters' ideas on communication as a manifestation of the ethical,where the ethical is described as openness to otherness and communication is viewed as a tension between reproduction of Self with alterity. Mutuality is not viewed as a necessary condition for the ethical because it involves intimacy that can only be discretely expressed. It is assumed that the end of theodicy is not the end of the ethical because the ethical is a space of profound intimacy,beyond preachment. Extreme cases of annihilation of otherness can't be described as rational in some cases and not others, and have deeper roots than modernity. The paper identifies challenges for the ethical turn in communication such as patriarchal order, implantations , involvement of the ego, dehumanization,isolation of larger contexts, traumatic disorders,and states of denial. It also identifies what enhances communication as an ethical process:reciprocal adaptation, intercultural communication, nurturing of hybrid cultures, and distance taking techniques such as time,distance, attention/topic shift,emotions such as feelings of awe,and art. Case analyses of negotiation and decision-making in PEPFAR are discussed. Implications of effective interpersonal & intercultural communication through the process of reciprocal adaptation for program success, reduced participant stress, and higher participant morale and psychological well-being in HIV/AIDS treatment programs in Southern Africa are described.