When the Noise Comes from Somewhere Else: Re-examining Transactional Model of Communication

• In Event: Sustaining and Transforming the Communication Discipline: Examining the Relationship of Spirituality and Communication

Abstract

This paper adds a new dimension to the transactional model of communication by including forces of interconnectedness (Self) and forces of individuation (self) as psychic influences on communication. Based on 4 years of ethnographic study of women in an Amma community and several key informant interviews, the author argues that ego is the psychic source of all noise in communication and that conflict is the seat of spiritual struggle between spiritual unity and ego.

Author

• Bhavana Upadhyaya, Univ of New Mexico