7 - The dialogical mind in professional practices

Summary

Dialogical professional practices discussed in this Chapter are all based on the Ego-Alter interdependence as an unbreakable ethical unit. All axioms discussed in these professional practices like intersubjectivity, the search for social recognition, imagination, epistemic trust and epistemic responsibility, are derived from the Ego-Alter interdependence. In non-problematic communication these axioms are present implicitly without speakers even being aware of them. In contrast, in problematic communications axioms must be explicitly negotiated and acknowledged for communication to take place.

Dialogical axioms lead to the development of dialogical concepts, for example resilience and dignity, or hyper- dialogue, emphasizing therapy as a cultural process, linking past and anticipated discourses.

If one adopts dialogical epistemology, therapeutic and research methods are postulated in terms of this epistemology. Dialogical methods cannot be developed by improving traditional methods of non-dialogical epistemology by making them more dynamic, less formal and otherwise. Instead, the point of departure of dialogical methods is the Self-Other interdependence as an irreducible axiom. It appears that single case studies are most apt to examine features of this interdependence in their historical, cultural and social contexts.