Paul Watzlawick (July 25, 1921 – March 31, 2007) was an Austrian-American family therapist, psychologist, communication theorist, and philosopher.

A theoretician in communication theory and radical constructivism, he commented in the fields of family therapy and general psychotherapy.

Watzlawick considered five axioms as a prerequisite for functioning communication process and competence between two individuals or an entire family.

With an underlying cybernetic structure, Watzlawick considered causality of a circular, feedback nature, with information as a core element.

[citation needed] Within the "Interactional View" communication is based on what is happening, and not necessarily associated with who, when, where, or why it takes place.

He studied "Normal" as well as the "disturbed" family in order to infer conditions conducive to the approach of interaction-orientation.

He saw symptoms, defenses, character structure and personality as terms describing the individual's typical interactions, which occur in response to a particular interpersonal context.

Interactional theorists believe that a person will fail to recognize this destructive resistance to change unless he or she understand Watzlawick's axioms.

Books he has written or on which he has collaborated include: Paul Watzlawick theory had great impact on the creation of the four-sides model by Friedemann Schulz von Thun.

Michel Weber argues for a cross-elucidation and reinforcement between the worldviews of Alfred North Whitehead and Watzlawick in his paper "The Art of Epochal Change".