Third International Conference on the Dialogical Self
MEANING IN MOVEMENT
Giampaolo Salvatore, Giuseppe Nicolò & Giancarlo Dimaggio
Third Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Symposium-0 / Thursday, auditorium 2
Impoverished dialogues in paranoid personaities
We start from the assumption that the the self is multifaceted and that the various self facets,
here defined characters, interact with each other in an ongoing internal dialogue. We discuss
the following hypothesis: impoverished dialogical relationship patterns are typical in patients
suffering from paranoid personality disorder. This means that: a) the characters appearing in
these patients’ narratives are few; main characters are: an insufficient-inadequate self, a diffidentmistrusting-hostile self, a hostile humiliating and threatening other; b) the internal dialogue which
the characters set up is stereotyped and always has the same outcome: an inadequate self
feeling itself under attack by a hostile other. This sort of dialogical pattern has an influence on a
patient’s behaviour and the course of psychotherapy.
We will show session transcripts and pages of diaries written during therapy to support and
discuss this hypothesis and discuss treatment issues.
Third International Conference on the Dialogical Self
MEANING IN MOVEMENT
Mick Cooper
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
[email protected]
Symposium-0 / Thursday, auditorium 2
Therapists’ experiences of I-Thou encounters with their clients
At the heart of many dialogical understanding of the self is the notion that human beings
are fundamentally and inextricably intertwined with each other: that our being is a being-inrelationship. According to the existential philosopher Martin Buber, however, it is only at certain
moments in our being with others - ‚I-Thou’ moments - that we truly realise and actualise this
fundamental intersubjectivity: when we allow ourselves to fully encounter an Other in all their
Otherness. Several psychotherapists (e.g. Friedman, Trub, von Weizsacker) have argued that
such I-Thou encounter are central to the process of therapeutic healing, but, to this point, few
attempts have been made to either validate this argument, or to investigate the prevalence and
nature of I-Thou encounters within the therapeutic realm.
This paper, therefore, presents findings from an in depth qualitative interview study that
investigated therapists’ experiences of meeting their clients in an I-Thou way, drawing on
Dave Mearns’ notion of ‚relational depth’. It will argue that many, perhaps all, therapists have
experienced such I-Thou encounters with their clients, and that they can be profoundly important
moments for therapists as well as for the people they work with. The paper will present a composite
phenomenological description of these I-Thou experiences, how therapists believed they helped
their clients, and also the factors which made it more or less possible for them to encounter their
clients in this way. Drawing on the notion of an ‚I-I’ intrapersonal relationship, implications for
therapeutic practice and a pluralistic understanding of human beings will also be discussed.
Third International Conference on the Dialogical Self
MEANING IN MOVEMENT
Giancarlo Dimaggio
Third Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Symposium-0 / Thursday, auditorium 2
Dialogical relationship patterns in narcissistic personality disorder: typical patterns,
therapeutic relationship and treatment
When narcissistic personalities relate to other people they are driven by standard interpersonal
schemas. Here we look at some audio-taped and transcribed session excerpts of one narcissistic
patient, with a focus on: the characters in the narratives; the pattern of relationships between
them; the way in which the therapists get drawn into embodying the characters; what steps the
therapists take to help the patients to manage these interpersonal processes; and the evolution
in the patterns as therapy proceeds. In the light of these empirical findings, we then discuss the
literature on the subject. The transcript analysis has been performed using Dialogical Self Theory.
Results show that there is a pattern common to the two patients, in which a weak self looks for
attention from an hostile, disdainful and critical other. As a result, self in turn becomes disdainful
and aggressive or withdraws from the relationship.
Third International Conference on the Dialogical Self
MEANING IN MOVEMENT
Giancarlo Dimaggio
Third Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Symposium-0 / Thursday, auditorium 2
Dialogical issues in psychotherapy: from stereotyped dialogical patterns to I-Thou forms
of interpersonal relating
The psychotherapeutic models presented here take the multivoicedness and the dialogical
dimension of the self into account. The therapist has a chance to become a new position in
the client’s mental scenario, facilitating and changing the organization of the client’s self. Before
reaching this condition therapists encounter several difficulties, because it’s easy that they enter
into dysfunctional relationships patterns together with the patients. The therapeutic relationship
may be charactererised by I-It forms in which the other is taken as an object and not recognised as
a different subject. The aim of psychotherapy is to promote more subject to subject, mutual forms
of relating. We discuss the topics from a general perspective (Cooper) and then describe in detail
what happens with patients suffering from personality disorders, in which typical interpersonal
patterns force therapists and patients towards problematic states (Kerr, Fiore, Salvatore). We
shall give a number of hints as to how a therapist should tackle these problems if treatment is to
be effective and more mutual forms of relationships may arise.
Third International Conference on the Dialogical Self
MEANING IN MOVEMENT
Giancarlo Dimaggio
Third Center for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Roma, Italy
[email protected]
Symposium-0 / Thursday, auditorium 2
Dialogical relationship patterns in narcissistic personality disorder: typical patterns,
therapeutic relationship and treatment
When narcissistic personalities relate to other people they are driven by standard interpersonal
schemas. Here we look at some audio-taped and transcribed session excerpts of one narcissistic
patient, with a focus on: the characters in the narratives; the pattern of relationships between
them; the way in which the therapists get drawn into embodying the characters; what steps the
therapists take to help the patients to manage these interpersonal processes; and the evolution
in the patterns as therapy proceeds. In the light of these empirical findings, we then discuss the
literature on the subject. The transcript analysis has been performed using Dialogical Self Theory.
Results show that there is a pattern common to the two patients, in which a weak self looks for
attention from an hostile, disdainful and critical other. As a result, self in turn becomes disdainful
and aggressive or withdraws from the relationship.