Introduction: The self within the space–time of language performance

Abstract

Scientific research in a dialogical paradigm highlights processes and insists on human beings' relatedness. The basic move is thus a shift from the self-contained "I" to the related self, where the other is seen as the self's pre-condition. This must be accompanied by a similar shift with regard to language: language has to be viewed as a genuinely dialogical and plural phenomenon. Through five target articles and four commentaries addressing themes across the articles, this special issue takes a close look at the relationship between language and the self and explores some of the topics surfacing within the dialogical perspective: the "in-between" of the related subjects; movements, such as in speaking, listening, thinking, and writing, as an inherent part of the dynamics of the selves' relatedness. As a result, language gets a rhetorical, phenomenal volume, and the subject is conceived as a self by virtue of its language performances.

Beyond the oversocialized conception of the subject in psychology: Desire, conflict, and the problem of social order

“…Indigenous psychology is not a monolithic trend (Kirschner, 2019a), but many of its versions have affinities with sociocultural approaches, since both stress that it is essential to have a deep understanding of a culture’s values, beliefs, history, and healing practices in order to help foster more culturally appropriate, equitable, just, and salutary partnerships for global health and well-being (Christopher et al, 2014; Gone, in press). Finally, the continuing advancement of sociocultural psychologies is evident in recent articles published in this and in other journals, which compare/contrast, integrate, and apply dialogical, positioning, discursive, narrative, historical–ontology, and other approaches (see, e.g., Bertau, 2014; Hallam et al, 2014; Hickinbottom-Brawn, 2013; Kuusela et al, 2020; Raggatt, 2015).…”

Experiential cartography and the significance of “untranslatable” words

“…The constitutive role of language in this respect—shaping and even forming what is taken to be reality itself—has long been recognised by theorists aligned with areas of psychological enquiry such as social constructionism and discursive psychology, like Gergen (1985) and Potter (1996). These discursive paradigms continue to generate fruitful lines of enquiry, such as analyses of the role language plays in constituting and defining the self, as explored in a recent special issue of Theory & Psychology , for example (Bertau, 2014). This literature shows us that language can even disclose and create new realms of experience that might not be perceived or accessed by people who are unfamiliar with that particular language.…”