A Therapeutic Reinterpretation of the Structure of Religious Ritual for the Resolution of Emotion: Toward a Group Therapy Model Integrating Verbalization and Enactment

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to construct a tentative structural model of group therapy for processing repressed emotions by discussing the intersection between clinical trauma theory and religious studies. This study premises that the therapeutic power inherent in religion does not derive from either myths as verbal devices or rituals as behavioral devices alone, but rather from the complementary synthesis of two axes: Verbalization-myth and Enactment-ritual. In this context, the Verbalization of myth and the Enactment of ritual are not identical, but are understood to establish a correspondence in the functional dimensions of emotional signification and expression. A review of existing literature indicates that changes in emotional and physiological responses, alongside neural activity related to language processing, have been consistently reported during trauma-related recall. This suggests limitations in relying solely on verbal interventions for trauma healing and underscores the necessity of incorporating body-mediated behavioral interventions. Accordingly, focusing on the Korean shamanic ritual Gut, this study analyzes how the dimensions of Verbalization and Enactment correspond within religious rituals, utilizing Buddhist Cheondojae (consolation ceremony for the dead) and Catholic Confession as comparative cases. Based on these analytical grounds, this paper examines Moreno’s psychodrama theory, Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity, and Lacan’s concept of the Symbolic, thereby tentatively proposing a structural model of group therapy in which Verbalization and Enactment are cyclically integrated.