Relationalität und dialogisches Selbst

Abstract

Relationality and Dialogical Self. After a more or less individualistically oriented initial phase, in the past decades most psychotherapeutic approaches have performed a ‘relational turn’ and have progressively placed the relatedness of humans to others into the focus both of their image of man and of their therapeutic practice. However, the concepts of relationality that have been formulated differ quite a bit; even within a single approach they can be located on an axis between a “weak” and a “strong” understanding of human relatedness. In this paper, some aspects of these concepts are explained and discussed with respect to the personcentred approach. In addition, the consequences are pointed out which the understanding of strong relationality as it is promoted by the author brings about for the way the self is conceived of: It is not only dialogical but also plural and essentially processual.