Dialogical self and psychotherapy: A dialogial understanding from the therapist- patient relationship

Abstract

The confirmation of psychotherapy outcomes has been so challenging for research as the explanation of how such outcomes occur, when verified. It is known that the main factor for the outcomes is the quality of the therapist-patient relationship. The description of this relationship as a communicative act is an alternative approach to explain the phenomenon such as its behavioral manifestations as its reflexive properties. This paper presents a review of the therapeutic relationship in its dialogical and semiotic properties. It is concluded that psychotherapy can be understood as a process in which the dialogue (inter and intrapersonal) is articulated with the outcomes in terms of modification of meaningful narratives and life stories. The first part is a critical discussion of the self dialogical model. The second is an analysis of the relation between dialogicality and psychotherapy in two contexts: the model of the self-confrontation and the dialogical and semiotic critical to the traditional therapies. The last part is a discussion of a dialogical-semiotic psychotherapy model centered in communication, which emphasizes the dialogical, narrative and semiotic qualities as decisive for the therapeutic relationship outcomes.

Key words: psychotherapy, dialogicality, self.