Self as an Organized System of Valuations:
Toward a Dialogue With the Person

Abstract

In describing the self as an organized system of valuations, the concept valuation refers to anything a person finds important in his or her everyday situation. A self-confrontation method is described in detail as a means of making a person's system of valuations explicit, with due regard to its affective properties. The method shows how the system is organized and reorganized over the course of time. This procedure is illustrated in a longitudinal case study of a person with an identity problem who spontaneously changed her name in the process of solving this problem. Essential for the proposed method of investigation is that the person has the position of self-investigator and reflects on his or her experiences in a dialogical relationship with the psychologist.

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