Abstract
This paper explores dialogical currents in Jung’s analytical psychology, with reference to contemporary theories of the dialogical self. The dialogical self is a notion that has gained increasing currency in psychology since the 1990s, in response to the limitations of traditional notions of the self, based on monological, encapsulated consciousness. Modern dialogical self theory construes the self as irrevocably embedded in a matrix of real and imagined dialogues with others. The theme of dialogical otherness within the self is also taken up in Jung’s analytical psychology, both in the practice of active imagination and psychotherapy and in the theory of archetypes, and a dialogical approach to inquiry is evident in Jung’s work from the outset. The implications of a dialogical re-conceptualization of analytical psychology and of analytical psychology for dialogical theory are considered in detail.
Highlights
In a recent essay Charles Taylor identified the problem of understanding the other as “the great challenge of this century both for politics and social science” ([1], p.24)
This paper takes up the theme of otherness in Jung’s analytical psychology from the perspective of contemporary theories of the dialogical self
The formulation of the dialogical self that has had the most influence in psychology is that of Hubert Hermans and colleagues [7,8,9,10,11], who define the dialogical self as a dynamic multiplicity of voiced positions in an extended dialogical landscape of mind that includes actual others in the social world and imagined others that are intimately intertwined with them
Summary
In a recent essay Charles Taylor identified the problem of understanding the other as “the great challenge of this century both for politics and social science” ([1], p.24). What analytical psychology can uniquely contribute with respect to this challenge is to give an account of the other within the self. This paper takes up the theme of otherness in Jung’s analytical psychology from the perspective of contemporary theories of the dialogical self. I begin by reviewing current notions of the dialogical self, focusing on the seminal theory of Hubert Hermans and colleagues. Jung’s understanding of dialogical otherness in the archetype of Self. Critical to the discussion is the notion of background understanding and the different ways it is understood in contemporary dialogical theory versus Jung’s archetypal theory, and the distinction between dialogue and dialectics. I conclude that Jung’s approach to dialogical thinking can both inform and be informed by current developments in dialogical self theory
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