Liberation in the Face of Uncertainty

In this volume, Dialogical Self Theory is innovatively presented as a guide to help elucidate some of the most pressing problems of our time as they emerge at the interface of self and society. As a bridging framework at the interface of the social sciences and philosophy, Dialogical Self Theory provides a broad view of problem areas that place us in a field of tension between liberation and social imprisonment. With climate change and the coronavirus pandemic serving as wake-up calls, the book focuses on the experience of uncertainty, the disenchantment of the world, the pursuit of happiness, and the cultural limitations of the Western self-ideal. Now more than ever we need to rethink the relationship between self, other, and the natural environment, and this book uses Dialogical Self Theory to explore actual and potential responses of the self to these urgent challenges.

Construction of borders: Intra-psychological dynamics of emerging national identity

Border-making is an inevitable experience in human life. Borders can be viewed as part of an external sociocultural structure that guides the dynamics of dialogues between persons and institutions. However, in addition to the interpersonal and societal level of analysis, borders can be conceptualized as an intra-psychological process of identity formation that is involved in meaning making and in organizing experiences with the world. Within the framework of cultural psychology, this article will provide an account of the process of bordering, using the example of Estonian identity that is approached as an affective process of semiotic construction of borders between us and the “other” (i.e., “non-us”). Using the dialogical self theory, it will examine how different I-positions (e.g., I-as-Estonian) related to collective and personal past experiences are involved in the construction of borders. The tendency to incline toward re-creation of the established structure of borders with the potential to renegotiate them is also revealed in this study.

Teaching Remotely During a Pandemic

This chapter presents a qualitative research project called “Oversight Points.” Fifty-nine Italian teachers participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews focusing on their perceptions, grievances, and hopes about remote teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown. Interviewees belong to a national school network and share a longstanding cooperation in blended action research initiatives. The research was inspired by the teacher professional identity (TPI) theory, and dialogical self-theory (DST) was used as an analytic lens. Data was organised through Nuvolar, a software that can generate word-clouds and provide timestamps of related video-clips. Results suggest that teachers are peculiar smart-workers. For them freedom of space and time, self-improvement, and autonomy—distinctive aspects of smart-working—acquire specific meanings, implying both positive and negative aspects. A set of positionings was found. The authors discuss how they compete in determining the re-organisation of teacher identities' landscape. Finally, they indicate some possible developments and practical implications.

Disturbances in dialogue and metacognition: A renewed way to understand and respond to alterations in self-experience in psychosis

A dialogical model of psychosis proposed that the collapse of dialogue may explain the alterations in sense of self and agency observed in psychosis. This view was hampered by lack of clarity regarding the processes that support or hinder dialogue. Since then, research on metacognition has offered an alternative but also partially complementary approach. To explore this issue a brief history of the original dialogical conceptualization of psychosis and the difficulties that it confronts is offered along with the essential contributions of research on metacognition in psychosis. Next, we explore how this more recent research has deepened the exploration of some core ideas of dialogical self theory, including the multiplicity of the self, while calling into question other aspects of that theory. Lastly, we discuss issues awaiting future research including models linking disturbances in basic brain function, social injustice, community connection, and self-experience in psychosis from the frame of a network.

Religious or Spiritual Experiences and Bipolar Disorder: A Case Study from the Perspective of Dialogical Self Theory

In this article, a case study will be presented of a person with bipolar I disorder, who struggles to interpret his religious experiences and how they are related to the disorder. The analysis builds on a larger study into religious experiences within the context of bipolar disorder (BD). In this previous study, medical and religious explanatory models for religious experiences related to BD often appeared to go hand in hand in patients who have had such experiences. In this case study, the various ‘voices’ in the interpretation process over time will be examined from the perspective of the dialogical self theory of Hubert Hermans, in order to explore the psychological dimension of this process. The case study demonstrates that a ‘both religious and pathological’ explanatory model for religious experiences consists of a rich and changing variety of I-positions that fluctuate depending on mood episode. Structured reflection from a spiritual and from a medical perspective over the course of several years helped this person to allow space for different dialoguing ‘voices’, which—in this case—led to a more balanced attitude towards such experiences and less pathological derailment. The systematic reflection on religious experiences by the person in the case study was mainly conducted without help of mental health care professionals and was not derived from a DST perspective. It could be argued, however, that DST could be used as a helpful instrument for the exploration of both medical and spiritual ‘voices’ in the interpretation of religious experiences in both clinical practice by hospital chaplains and by other professionals.

Self in the mirror: Uniting occidental and oriental views

The self is a complex system that no human being can ignore and yet it is still incredibly abstract. The present paper will apply occidental as well as oriental perspectives in its study of the dynamic of the dialogical self. Inspired by the work of David. Y. F. Ho I take on the task of looking at myself in the mirror to study the aspects of inner dialogue. The analysis is done with integration of Dialogical Self Theory and Dialectic perspectives. Leading into an illustration of the dialogical nature of spirituality.

The Narrative Turn in Career Development Theories: An Integrative Perspective

During the past 70 years, diverse vocational theories have focused on various important topics such as career choice processes or person–organization fit and adaptation to describe people’s career development. More recently, narrative approaches have been proposed by several authors inspired by dialogical self theory or the life story model of identity in career counselling interventions. This narrative turn encourages career interventions to focus more on the meaning experiences; the reflexive processes involved; and the contextual aspects of career paths, such as the life design paradigm. Narrative identity facilitates understanding these dynamics once it is conceived as a meta-capacity, allowing people to self-direct and design their actions within these continuous interrelations. Narrative identity is built on a dialogical relationship, allowing individuals to situate themselves in social space and strengthen subjectivity, reflexivity, and intentionality. Considering the narrative processes for intervention research will permit examination in greater detail of the processes underlying change. This chapter thus discusses how narrative career development theories, such as the career construction theory or the life-long self-construction theory, can complement existing approaches and constitute an integrative and articulated framework if they take account of previously acquired knowledge.