„HIER BIN ICH“: Zu einem dialogischen Verständnis des Personzentrierten Ansatzes

Abstract

“Here I am” On a dialogic understanding of the person-centered approach. How can we understand ourselves or an other person? As opposed to gaining knowledge about the Other the person-centered approach aims at ac-knowledg-ing the other person as really an Other. This requires a break with those traditional psychotherapeutic epistemologies that face the danger of getting caught in the trap of the same by concluding from the known to the unknown. The alternative is the acknowledgment and authentic realization of the fundamental We of being a human (i.e. an epistemology of transcendence or alterity) — an essentially dialogic situation, particularly in psychotherapy. According to encounter philosophy the human being has been in dialogue from the very beginning, so it is even adequate to say: the person is dialogue. Therapy as dialogue is neither about exchange or symmetry nor is it the goal of therapy. It rather is the challenge to enter an already given Thou-I-relationship, to disclose and develop it. The paper discusses the therapeutic, ethical and political consequences thereof.