COM 2007 Volume 12

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Existence, communication, violence and a mainly Kierkegaardian existential approach to communication on HIV/AIDS
(Department of Communication Science, University of the Free State, 2007) Chasi, Colin; De Wet, Gideon
From an existential perspective, it is observed that communication is expressive of the embodiment of the individual in the world. Communication is above all else expressive of people's modes of existence. The dimensions of the seer and seen are acknowledged as they relate to the embodied individual. They permit an understanding of how the individual fails to contend with the Thou; how it is that the individual is always doomed to live a life that has the structure of bad faith, where one hides the truth from oneself. With reference to all of the above, it is noted that communication is violent. But in this violent character of communication, the eternal source of art is observed. From and in response to these observations an existential approach to HIV/Aids is enunciated in which special attention is given to some ideas of Søren Kierkegaard. The idea is to illustrate that people have the possibility to apply a tactful art of communication to overcome the limiting violence of communication.