Adjective

Indirect' messages permit communicative contacts when,
without them, the alternatives would be total inhibition, si-
lence, and solitude on the one hand, or, on the other, com-
municative behavior that is direct, offensive, and hence
forbidden. This is a painful choice. In actual practice, neither
alternative is likely to result in the gratification of personal or
sexual needs. In this dilemma, ' indirect communications pro-
vide a useful compromise. As an early move in the dating
game, the young man might invite the young woman to dinner
or to the movies. These communications are polyvalent: both
the invitation and the response to it have several "levels" of
meaning. One is the level of the overt message—that is,
whether they will have dinner together, go to a movie, and so
forth. Another, more covert, level pertains to the question of
sexual activity: acceptance of the dinner invitation implies
that sexual overtures might perhaps follow. Conversely, rejec-
tion of the invitation means not only refusal of companionship
for dinner but also of the possibility of further sexual explora-
tion. There may be still other levels of meaning. For example,
acceptance of the dinner invitation may be interpreted as a
sign of personal or sexual worth and hence grounds for
increased self-esteem, whereas its rejection may mean the
opposite and generate feelings of worthlessness.