A Dialogical Analysis of Decision-Making on Childbearing: A Penelopian Odyssey on the Boat of the Self in the River of Time

Abstract

In decision-making, a person moves from desire to action and from imagination to actualization. How the objects of intentionality and reality relate in this process determines the outcome. Thus, every decision-making process has an inherent ambivalence; and the same is true about childbearing. A not yet being born child becomes an object of thought, a relationship is shaped with it, and a decision is made over bringing it into the world. The present study analyzes the decision-making process on childbearing according to the Dialogical Self Theory, with the methodology of Socio-Cultural Dynamics Semiotic Analysis, where the role of signs in giving meaning to what humans do as agents are central to the decision-making process. This paper analyzes one case from the whole corpus of data—selected for its complexity—by extracting the I-positions and their interactions in the person’s mind. The I-positions, mediated by signs, affect how individuals contemplate childbearing and their final decision. The analytic focus is on the unity of The Self and Time. On the Self dimension, the focus is primarily on the psychological borders emerging within oneself and between spouses. Four necessary fields of internal negotiations are found: The Self, The Spouse, The Imagery Child, and The Others. On the inevitable dimension of irreversible time, dialogues between the past, now, and future using intentionality and imagination are depicted. The analysis shows how ambivalence fields are shaped and how different parts and voices within the Self narrow or expand ambivalence fields. Without resolving these ambivalences, it is impossible to finalize a satisfying decision.