This commentary focuses on Ligorio’s (2010) and O’Sullivan-Lago and de Abreu’s (2010) work as an opportunity to elaborate upon discontinuity emergence and continuity restoration within the Dialogical Self. We depart from the pair rupture—transition as a unit of analysis for understanding the flow of change within the Dialogical Self and the centrality of ambivalence as a development catalyser to focus on the way change and maintenance of problematic self-narratives in psychotherapy are pictured by the innovative moments model. We have argued that innovative moments (or i-moments) can be understood as episodes of rupture or discontinuity, since they challenge a person’s usual way of understanding and experiencing (i.e., the problematic narrative), generating ambivalence or uncertainty. We have suggested that avoiding this ambivalence, by means of semiotic attenuation of i-moments, can foster the maintenance of the problematic self narrative. In fact, when ambivalence is not overcome, i-moments and the problematic narrative may establish a cyclical relation throughout the therapeutic process, blocking the self’s development.
Abbey, E. ( 2004). The blind leading to seeing: A new path to self-reflexivity . Culture and Psychology, 10(4), 409-415.
2.
Abbey, E., & Valsiner, J. ( 2005). Emergence of meanings through ambivalence. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(1). Retrieved 13 December 2008 from: http://www.qualitativeresearch.net/fqs/fqs-texte/1-05-1-23-e.htm
3.
Arkovitz, H., & Engle, D. ( 2007). Understanding and working with resistant ambivalence in psychotherapy. In S.G. Hofmann & J. Weinberg (Eds.), The art and science of psychotherapy (pp. 171-190). New York: Routledge .
4.
Cooper, M. ( 2004). Encountering self-otherness: ‘I-I and ‘I-Me’ modes of self relating. In H.J.M. Hermans & G. Dimaggio (Eds.), The dialogical self in psychotherapy (pp. 60-73). New York: Brunner-Routledge.
5.
Cunha, C., & Ribeiro, A. (in press). Rehearsing renewal of identity: Re-conceptualization on the move. In M.M. Gonçalves & J. Salgado (Eds.), Processes of innovation: Studying change in psychotherapy and everyday life.
6.
Ecker, B., & Hulley, L. ( 2000). The order in clinical disorders: Symptom coherence in depth-oriented brief therapy. In R.A. Neimeyer & J.D. Raskin (Eds.), Construction of disorder: Meaning-making frameworks for psychotherapy (pp. 63-89). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
7.
Feixas, G., Sánchez, V., & Gómez-Jarabo, G. (2002). La resistencia en psicoterapia: El papel de la reactância, la construcción del sí mismo y el tipo de demanda. Análisis y Modificación de Conducta, 28(118), 235-286.
8.
Fernandes, E., Senra, E., & Feixas, G. ( 2009). Terapia construtivista centrada em dilemas implicativos [Constructivist Psychotherapy focused on implicative dilemmas]. Braga: Psiquilíbrios.
9.
Freedman, J. & Combs, G. ( 1996). Narrative therapy: The social construction of preferred realities. New York: Norton.
10.
Gonçalves, M.M., Matos, M., & Santos, A. ( 2009). Narrative therapy and the nature of ‘innovative moments’ in the construction of change. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 22, 1-23.
11.
Gonçalves, M.M., Ribeiro, A., Matos, M., Santos, A., & Mendes, I. (in press). The innovative moments coding system: A coding procedure for tracking changes in psychotherapy. In S. Salvatore , J. Valsiner, S. Strout, & J. Clegg (Eds.), YIS: Yearbook of idiographic science2009-Volume 2. Rome: Firera Publishing Group.
12.
Gonçalves, M.M., Santos, A., Salgado, J., Matos, M., Mendes, I., Ribeiro, A. et al. (in press). Innovations in psychotherapy: Tracking the narrative construction of change. In J.D. Raskin , S.K. Bridges, & R. Neimeyer (Eds.), Studies in meaning 4: Constructivist . New York: Pace University Press.
13.
Hermans, H.J.M., & Kempen, H.J.G. (1993). The dialogical self: Meaning as movement. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
14.
Hermans, H.J.M. ( 1996). Opposites in a dialogical self: Constructs as characters . Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 9, 1-26.
15.
Hermans, H.J.M., Kempen, H., & van Loon, R.J.P. (1992). The dialogical self: Beyond individualism and rationalism. American Psychologist, 47, 23-33.
16.
Josephs, I., & Valsiner, J. ( 1998). How does autodialogue work? Miracles of meaning maintenance and circumvention strategies. Social Psychology Quarterly , 61, 68-83.
17.
Kelly, G.A. ( 1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.
18.
Ligorio, M. ( 2010). Dialogical relationship between identity and learning . Culture and Psychology, 16(1), 93-107.
19.
Linell, P., & Marková, I. (1993). Acts in discourse: From monological speech acts to dialogical inter-act. The Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 23, 173-195.
20.
Mahoney, M. ( 1991). Human change processes: The scientific foundations of psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books .
21.
Matos, M., Santos, A., Gonçalves, M.M., & Martins, C. ( 2009). Innovative moments and change in narrative therapy. Psychotherapy Research, 19, 68-80.
22.
Michel, A., & Wortham, S. ( 2002). Clearing away the self. Theory and Psychology , 12, 625-650.
23.
Molina, M.E., & del Río, M.T. (2008). Voices of the self as therapeutic resources (commentary on Morioka). International Journal for Dialogical Science, 3(1), 131-142.
24.
O’Sullivan-Lago, R., & de Abreu, G. ( 2010). Maintaining continuity in a cultural contact zone: Identification strategies in the Dialogical Self. Culture and Psychology , 16(1), 73-92.
25.
Ribeiro, A., Gonçalves, M., & Santos, A. (in press). Innovative moments in psychotherapy: From the narrative outputs to the semiotic-dialogical processes. In S. Salvatore, J. Valsiner, S. Strout, & J. Clegg (Eds.), YISYearbook of idiographic science2010-Volume 3. Rome: Firera Publishing Group.
26.
Rosa, C., & Gonçalves, M.M. (2008). Dialogical self and close relationships: Looking for ambivalences. Studia Psychologica , 8, 87-106.
27.
Salgado, J., & Gonçalves, M. (2007). The dialogical self: Social, personal, and (un)conscious. In A. Rosa & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of social cultural psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Santos, A., & Gonçalves, M.M. (in press). Innovative moments and change processes in psychotherapy: An exercise in new methodology. In J. Valsiner, M. Lyra & P. Molenaar (Eds.), Handbook of dynamic process methodology in the social and developmental sciences . New York: Springer.
29.
Santos, A., Gonçalves, M.M., & Matos, M. (forthcoming). Innovative moments and poor outcome in narrative therapy. Manuscript in preparation.
30.
Stiles, W.B. ( 1999). Signs and voices in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy Research, 9, 1-21.
31.
Valsiner, J. ( 2000). Culture and human development: An introduction. London: Sage.
32.
Valsiner, J. ( 2002). Forms of dialogical relations and semiotic autoregulation within the self. Theory and Psychology, 12, 251-265.
33.
Valsiner, J. ( 2004). Temporal integration of stuctures within dialogical self . Keynote lecture at the 3rd International Conference on the Dialogical Self, Warsaw.
34.
Valsiner, J. ( 2008). Constraining one’s self within the fluid social worlds. Paper presented at the 20th Biennial ISSBD meeting, Würzburg.
35.
Valsiner, J., & Abbey, E. ( 2006). Ambivalence in focus: Remembering the life and work of Else Frenkel-Brunswik. Estudios de Psicologia, 27, 1, 9-17.
36.
White, M., & Epston, D. ( 1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: Norton.
37.
Zittoun, T. ( 2007). Dynamics of interiority: Ruptures and transitions in self-development. In L.M. Simão & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Otherness in question: Labyrinths of the self (pp. 187-214). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
