Okulesika

Okulesika studies the behavioral aspects of the eyes and the use of gaze as a way of non-verbal communication . Eyes can convey dominance, submission, involvement, detachment, positive or negative impression. For example, people of high status are more likely to be the first to establish eye contact when communicants of low status look into the interlocutor’s eyes when they listen, and not when they speak.

The human eye is a unique organ of the human body: in the iris of the eye you can find about 250 unique signs, combinations of which cannot be repeated even in twins. This feature of the human eye can be compared with fingerprints , but the pattern on the fingers lends itself to change, and the signs of the eyes cannot be changed ^[2] .

Okulesika can transform under the influence of ethnic characteristics of communication, since the eyes are an important organ in physiological, psychological, social, religious and sexual relations. Every culture and every nation develops typical patterns of eye behavior and stereotypical language ways to talk about them. The rules of etiquette eye behavior, for example, strictly regulate and prohibit certain views. For example, in American culture one should not avoid looking, but it is also unacceptable to look at another person. If we are talking about Puerto-Americans and Americans of Mexican descent, then a lowered look indicates respect.

The gaze takes part in the process of forming the utterance: when formalizing a thought, it is natural for a person to look into “space”, but in the end he looks at his interlocutor, which means that thought is difficult to verbalize.

According to the studies of the linguist Grigory Kreidlin , several main types of eye behavior of people in a dialogue are distinguished in an oculist: ^[2] :

• “One-sided look” ( English one-sided look ) - a glance of one person at another (but not at the face);
• " Face gaze " ( English face gaze ) - a glance of one person on the face of another;
• "Direct gaze" into the eyes> "( Eng. Direct <eee> gaze );
• “Mutual gaze” ( Eng. Mutual gaze ) - a look of partners in each other's faces;
• “Eye contact”, or “ eye contact ” ( English eye contact ) - both partners deliberately look into each other's eyes (cf. Russian to look at each other);
• “ Gaze avoidance ” - a situation where one of the participants in the dialogue (or both) seeks to avoid looking into the eyes from the interlocutor;
• "Gaze omission" ( Eng. Gaze omission ) - not having a clear intention to avoid eye contact, not to look at a partner.

Criticism of theories of non-verbal communications arose especially sharply in connection with the practices of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) developed in the 1960s and 1970s in psychotherapy . Critics raised questions about the inefficiency and unethical use of NLP ^[3] . Many argue that NLP is predominantly a fraud. For example, psychologist Michael Corballis states that the authors of NLP deliberately created the impression of scientific respectability, since in reality “NLP has little to do with neurology , linguistics, or even a respectable sub-discipline of neuro - linguistics ” ^[4] .

1. Kreidlin G. E. Nonverbal semiotics: Body language and natural language. - M.: New Literary Review, 2002. - 592 p.
2. Zhukova I. N. [et al.] Glossary of terms of intercultural communication. - M .: Flint: Nauka, 2013 .-- 628 p.