The many voices of the self

Abstract

"Abstract: What Lev Vygotsky once called the ‘higher’ psychological processes can be understood as experienced inter-human interactions that the individual has creatively appro- priated and that, by means of their dialogical format, decisively stamp his psychic activities. Through the process of creative appropriation, which has been documented in numerous infant research studies, each individual self is essentially connected with others and carries the traces of his dialogues with him – i.e. not only in the way that he will remain related to others for the rest of his life, but also in the way that he adopts the multitude of interactional experiences, in which he has been engaged with numerous others, and transforms them into aspects of his own self. These self-aspects, in turn, are engaged in a continuous dialogue with each other. Gestalt therapy techniques that use an ‘empty chair’ build on the dialogical format of the self and, thereby, acquire their efficacy. Key words: developmental psychology, dialogue, dialogicality, empty chair, interaction, plurality, relationship, self."