Positioning and dialogical activity are not simply given but the result of complex developmental processes. In the present chapter we want to discuss some processes that are crucial for understanding the emergence and development of a dialogical self. What are its precursors and early manifestations and in what ways does it develop in the course of time? When we pretend that the dialogical self is not only social but also embodied, how is the body expressed in the process of positioning and repositioning and in forms of dialogical activity? Under what conditions is the dialogical self involved in a progressive process and under what conditions in a regressive process? Such questions are central to the present chapter, which is divided in three parts. In the first part we describe some forerunners and early manifestations of the dialogical self. The second part is organized around the central role of “promoter positions” that are particularly relevant to understanding how the self is stimulated to reach higher levels of development. In the third and final part, we present a model that is useful in explaining the progressions and regressions of a dialogical self in development.

Precursors and early manifestations of a dialogical self

In the first part of this chapter it is our purpose to demonstrate that the embodied nature of the dialogical self is expressed in early processes of positioning and repositioning and that the social nature of the self is rooted in pre-linguistic and non-verbal forms of interaction.