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3 - Positioning theory and dialogue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2010

Hubert Hermans
Affiliation:
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Agnieszka Hermans-Konopka
Affiliation:
International Institute for Dialogical Self
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Summary

A person cannot help thinking of himself as, and even feeling himself to be … two people, one of whom can act upon and observe the other. Thus he pities, loves, admires, hates, despises, rebukes, comforts, examines, masters or is mastered by, ‘himself’.

C. S. Lewis

One of the starting points of this book is that the self and identity can only be properly understood when their spatial and temporal nature is fully acknowledged. Therefore, we started this book by exploring self and identity as part of a globalizing world (space) and as part of a changing collective history (time). In the present chapter we develop a theoretical framework that takes these spatial and temporal processes into account. From a spatial point of view, we will describe the extended self in terms of a spatially organized position repertoire. From a temporal point of view, we will elaborate on the view that the dialogical self is located at the interface of different models of the self: the traditional, modern, and post-modern models. In our discussion of the similarity between the post-modern and the dialogical model of the self, we will focus on the multiplicity and differences of positions. In agreement with the modern model, the dialogical self takes into account the coherence and continuity of the self. Finally, from the traditional self the dialogical self learns that there is a moral purpose, expressed in the moral valuation of the multiplicity and alterity not only of the position repertoire of other people, groups and cultures but also of the different positions in the self.

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Dialogical Self Theory
Positioning and Counter-Positioning in a Globalizing Society
, pp. 120 - 199
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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