17 - Narrative processes of innovation and stability within the dialogical self

Summary

This chapter explores a dialogical process through which innovation is aborted in psychotherapy a cyclical movement between two opposing voices, one dominant that organizes the client's problematic self-narrative, and one innovative, non-dominant voice. Self-narrative presents a meaningful framework of understanding life experiences, triggering repetition. Dominant self-narratives are characterized by an asymmetrical relationship between the different I-positions involved. The emergence of innovative moments (IMs) leads the self to strive to restore its sense of continuity, protecting itself from uncertainty, by aborting novelty exploration and returning to the dominant previous self-narrative. The chapter discusses this defensive movement facing innovation, which, if persistent during psychotherapeutic treatment, could lead to an unsuccessful outcome. It describes two implications of the work for dialogical self theory (DST): the dialogical functions of reconceptualization, as a particular form of metaposition, and the way multiplicity in the self produces stability or change.