The Dialogical Self: Meaning as Movement
Hubert J.M. Hermans & Harry J.G. Kempen
San Diego: Academic Press, 1993 (195 pages)
From the back of the book:
Contemporary research in personality, social psychology, and sociology has renewed an interest in the self. This volume argues that the self may consist of multiple selves, any of which may interact with the others in a dialogical fashion. The self is presented as a non-unitary embodiment that transcends the limits of individualism and rationalism. Beginning with a philosophical discussion of the self, this volume discusses the decentralization of the self in narrative psychology, the retreat of the omniscient narrator in literary sciences, the genesis of self-knowledge in children, and the concept of modern society as multiplicity of collective voices.
Contents
Chapter 1: Vico versus Descartes
Chapter 2: The narrative construction of reality
Chapter 3: The decentralization of the self
Chapter 4: Developments in modern novelistic literature
Chapter 5: The dialogical self: Tension between dominance and exchange
Chapter 6: Dynamics and synthesis of the self
Chapter 7: Self and society: A reexamination of Mead
Chapter 8: Psychology's three separations; Division versus Cross-fertilization
Chapter 9: The construction and co-construction of meaning: Explorations into a psychology of valuation
Evaluations
"The work (. . .) is at the very cutting edge of the human sciences" (Theodore Sarbin, University of California, Berkeley)
". . . in the second cognitive revolution, I have no doubt that this book merits a prominent dialogical position" (John Shotter, University of New Hampshire, in Theory & Psychology, 1996, 6, p. 179)
". . . splendid, and very thought provoking." (James Lamiell, Georgetown university, Washington, DC).
"The text is chockfull of ideas and connections and makes many compelling arguments" (P.G. Gilbert in Review, 1995, 17, p. 76)
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