Wherefore Art ‘Thou’ in the Dialogical Approach: The Relevance of Buber's Ideas to Family Therapy and Research

Abstract

The philosophy of Martin Buber, the author of the seminal text I and Thou, offers profound insights into the dialogical approach to family therapy and research, in particular the understanding of the moment‐to‐moment relational encounters between therapist and client, or researcher and participant. This paper provides an introduction to Buber's dialogical philosophy of relation as based on his extensive writing. It opens Buber's scholarship beyond the ideas of the I‐It and I‐Thou relationships, to explore a relational process involving an ongoing movement between I‐It and I‐Thou. The author's conceptualisation suggests that Buber's poetic terms reveal different layers of this dialogical process that may lead to intersubjective moments, those which offer dialogical knowing and the possibility of transformation. The author proposes that such an understanding may increase the therapist's and researcher's awareness, sensitivity and attunement to this dialogical process and to moments of dialogical knowing.