Gundula Zierott PTSTA C
Svenja Zierott No TA Status
Field of audience: C,E,O

Language: English
Level of audience: All

Structural discrimination perpetuates injustice on an individual, institutional and cultural level and is therefore a challenging issue also for us as transactional analysts. How can we hold ourselves accountable and assume responsibility for change in our professional and private roles? How can we succeed in dismantling structural discrimination without reproducing homogenizing categorizations and stereotypes that stand in the way of radical diversity and the individuals’ autonomy?

In a keynote speech in 2020, Martha Hüsgen-Adler argued that taking on social responsibility can be associated with two existential motives: Empathy and guilt. While empathy allows us to assume responsibility expressed in showing up for the concerns of others more easily, feelings of guilt are based on the realization of one’s negligence, mistakes, and privileges – which can sometimes lead to passivity instead of action. Awareness, flexibility, and courage – essential characteristics of autonomy in Bern’s sense – are required to manage these emotions and distance ourselves from discounts and game dynamics.

In the workshop, these considerations on TA concepts meet the anti-discrimination theory and didactics of Social Justice and Radical Diversity. In addition to the basics about structural discrimination, participants will learn how to engage in a dialogical debate using the Mahloquet method.  Mahloquet is both an ethical-dialogical approach and a form of discussion that is aimed at facilitating joint thinking and an equitable diversity of perspectives.

In the workshop, we want to offer an initial experience with the Mahloquet and then reflect together on how to bridge the gap between two worlds: How can social justice be conceptualized in terms of TA, and can TA itself become effective against structural discrimination?