Contributions to a Theory of Communication

Abstract

This article focuses on the ideas Eric Berne (1953) put forward in his essay “Concerning the Nature of Communication.” The author shows how starting from cybernetics, Berne developed with great ingenuity concepts such as the value of noise, the construction of the communication context, and the importance of the hidden message. She illustrates how Berne anticipated the work of Jakobson and the Palo Alto School in moving from the communication context to the communication relationship, which would become the basis of future theories of interpersonal communication. Berne’s suggestion that a message contains intentionality and desirability predated Jakobson’s development of the concept of the function of the message and, in particular, the phatic function.

• noise
• psychological information
• cybernetics
• linguistic
• structuralism
• energy
• message
• desirability
• intentionality
• context
• communicative relationship

Notes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cetta Berardo

Author Biography

Cetta Berardo is a Certified Transactional Analyst (education) who works as a counselor with adolescents. She is also a writer and has published several articles in Italian transactional analysis journals. She can be reached at Via Rubatera 12, 12030 Manta, Italy; email: [email protected].