Conference Agenda

Dialogical Self Theory (DST) conceptualizes the self as a dynamic multiplicity of relationally and culturally situated I-positions engaged in ongoing dialogue (Hermans & Kempen, 1993; Hermans & Gieser, 2012). Within systemic psychotherapy, this perspective resonates with relational and narrative understandings of identity as co-constructed through family roles, cultural expectations, and intergenerational mandates (Anderson, 1997). This paper explores the dialogical self through the narrative analysis of a dream presented in therapy by a woman in her mid-forties undergoing a significant life transition.

The dream is approached as a dialogical text in which multiple voices can be “heard”: past identities shaped by a merged family of origin, dominant present positions organized around caregiving roles (mother, wife, carer), and agonizing anticipations of a near future marked by separation and uncertainty. Alongside these voices, the dream reveals a marginalized and largely unarticulated I-position oriented toward the client’s own identity beyond care for others. The client is confronting the necessity of redefining herself as she moves away from the centrality of the mother role and toward a personal sense of mission and selfhood.

Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative narrative analysis informed by DST, focusing on dialogical positioning, voice dominance, and temporal movement within the dream narrative (Ribeiro et al., 2016). The therapist’s dialogical stance supports reflexivity and the emergence of dialogue between dominant and marginalized positions. The analysis illustrates how dreams can function as privileged dialogical spaces in systemic psychotherapy, facilitating movement from monological role-identities toward a more flexible, multi-voiced self during midlife transition (Hermans, 2018; White & Epston, 1990).