The Return of Subjectivity: From a Multiplicity of Selves to the Dialogical Self

Abstract

Psychology has been increasingly recognizing the multiplicity of the self. However, this recognition raises the problem of explaining how a sense of self-identity is achieved within a multiplicity of selves. Two theoretical orientations playing a major role in the study of the plurality of the self: the social-cognitive perspective, in which self is studied as an information-processing device, and the social constructionist framework, in which self is understood as a matter of social and linguistic negotiation. Nevertheless, it is argued that these orientations are still trapped in several epistemological problems and the final result leaves no space for subjectivity. Dialogism and the dialogical view of the self are presented as possible solutions for those problems. Conceiving self as a result of the dialogicality, unity and multiplicity appear as two contrasting, but united poles of a dialogical and (inter)subjective self.