Accessing the experience of a dialogical self: Some needs and concerns

Abstract

This commentary focuses on Konig's ( 2009) work as an opportunity to elaborate on selfhood as a dynamic and dialogical phenomenon. We depart from Bakhtinian dialogism and dialogical self theory to focus on the dynamics of selfhood processes and draw a more explicit theoretical link between the dialogical self and phenomenological experience. The interconnected dimensions of discontinuity and continuity in a multiple, multipositioned self are also elaborated. We defend that the construction of similitude in the self is permitted by self-regulation and self-organization processes that create recurring patterns in a moving self. Finally, the role that the introduction of difference and alterity can play in the promotion of change and development is also discussed.