From "the Entitative Self" To "the Dialogical Self"

As one of the most famous modern western psychologist, Hubert J. M. Hermans takes the dialogism of postmodern self as his observing and studying object. By his critical eyes, Hermans scanned the traditional studies of entitative self. Dialogue is the mainstream discourse in the21st century. Changes in the postmodern society require a transformation from the entitative self to the dialogical self, in order to highlight the selectivity and creativity of self. Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory just catered to this shift. He thinks that one’s self is a result of interpersonal interaction in social life and constructed by dialogue, rather than the inner essence of people. Therefore, Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory is of great academic values. This paper gave a comprehensive explanation for Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory by theoretical analysis and the method of literature study, which was divided into six parts:In the preface part, firstly, the dialogical shift of contemporary self was briefly pointed out, and so as to determine the background and significance of the topic. Secondly, the current status of related researches both home and abroad were made comments, and made clear the purpose.Part two combed the background of Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory, including his life, times background, philosophical basis, psychological origin, and the direct effect of James’ I-Me relationship and Bakhtin’s polyphonic novel.Part three systemly explained Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory with a core concept of "dialogical self". Firstly, introduced the definition of the term, formation and development, and its characteristics. Then discussed a metaphor of dialogical self called "a society of mind" moreover, its positioning process and the bi-directional relationship between dialogical self and emotion.Part four explored the methodological implications of Hermans’Dialogical Self Theory. For the research orientation, this theory realized four transformations:from realism to constructionism, from dualism to extended self, from individualism to the society of mind, from scientific world to life world. In addition, this paper introduced two methods which founded by Hermans, such as Self-Confrontation Method and Personal Position Repertoire, and analyzed the specific application of these two methods in the field of psychological consultation and treatment with some cases.Part five pointed out that Hermans’Dialogical Self Theory can also be used to explain some problems we met in our daily lives. Such as how can organizations function in a dialogical way? How can motivation profit from insights into the functioning of the dialogical self? Is it possible to develop forms of conflict resolution that take some basic insight in the dialogical nature of the self into account?Part six gave some brief commends on Hermans’Dialogical Self Theory. Hermans combines self and dialogue together, which provided a new point of view and way for self studies. From the entitative self to dialogical self, this theory caters to the dialogical shift of the contemporary philosophy. However, there is a lack of connection between Dialogical Self Theory and mainstream psychology. And another disadvantage of this theory is that it lacks a complete and unified research procedure, which results in the research methods cannot be widely applied, therefore Hermans’Dialogical Self Theory with some limitations.