Abstract (eng)
14.1. Abstract - Englisch
This doctoral thesis examines the applicability of Transactional Analysis (TA) to the analysis of religious communication. In this process prayer is at the center of religious communication. Employing the analytic model of ego-states, as it occurs in Transaction Analysis, religious communication in the film „Jesus, du weißt“ is analyzed and examined based on further prayer texts.
Over the past fifty years Transactional Analysis, which was originally developed by Eric Berne for the treatment of various personality disorders, has proven successful as an independent form of therapy in the fields of psychoanalysis and social psychiatry. Having gained new impulses from these fields, Transactional Analysis continued to be developed and was transferred to numerous other new areas, among them pedagogy and human communication.
The dissertation in hand shows that, considering its tools, Transactional Analysis offers a promising perspective for research in the field of religious communication. In doing so it also examines and comments on some principal questions concerning the applicability of Transactional Analysis to the relationship between man and God. The essential questions deal with the communication behavior of the people praying in the film, with the existence of certain dominant ego-states, and with the frequent switches between ego-states.
The question to be answered regarding the development of autonomy and pedagogically relevant approaches concerning education in prayer assumes a prominent position among the concept questions. For that purpose the communication process in the relationship between man and God as a consequence of interaction patterns has to be observed and analyzed in order to draw conclusions about the function of ego-states and their underlying structure.
After a brief description of Transactional analysis, its heuristic tools are applied to the monologues of the people appearing in Ulrich Seidl’s film „Jesus du weißt.“ The significant characteristics of the forms of prayer as religious communication are analyzed by means of the explanatory descriptions of transactional theory in order to recognize the people’s ego-states and to ascertain the specific part of ego-states of their personalities based on their social interactions. In this process the transformation of each person during prayer is analyzed regarding body language, tone of voice, and their use of idioms, in order to reveal possible structures of communication in this religious film. As a new conceptual approach classic film analysis is enriched with elements of Transactional Analysis to create a „Transactional Analysis oriented film analysis.“
The close connection between communication and religious education raises the question how relevant Transactional Analysis can be for religious education. Intending to answer this question the results of the Transactional Analysis oriented film analysis and those of the analysis of other prayers were associated with Fritz Oser’s and Paul Gmünder’s „Entwicklungstheorie des religiösen Urteils“ in order to outline a possible advancement of religious education through prayer. Transactional Analysis provides the necessary concepts and analytic models for a better understanding of people and their religious and individual development regarding social growth and autonomy.