The idea of a dialogical self is based on the distinction between I (the one who knows) and me (what is known) of William James, and on the polyphonic novel of Mikhail Bakhtin. The self is no more centralized and unified, but decentralized and multiple. Dialogicity occurs among self positions that may be internal (I as a man, I as a son, I as a professional, I as a member of a community) and external (my father, my friends, my colleagues). The voices are in constant dialogue, sometimes in conflict. The present article reviews the theoretical and methodological propositions of the dialogica self theory: narrative thought and neurocognition of consciousness. It also analyzes the instrument largely utilized in empirical research: the Personal Position Repertoire, used for mapping the relations between different self positions. Two central issues remain for debate and research: how to observe the self in dialogue and explain the possibility or impossibility of a metaposition.
Dialogical self; psychotherapy; narrative