THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF DIALOGICALLY-BASED RESEARCH ON PSYCHOTHERAPY: A PROPOSAL (COMMENTARY)

This paper outlines a proposal regarding the essential elements that I believe should be included in a dialogically based research approach to psychotherapy and discusses the extent to which the four analytical approaches presented in the papers of this section take them into account. I contend that, firstly, any dialogically based research on psychotherapy should be grounded on a view of psychotherapy as a semiotic process and therefore analyse the meanings that are produced and negotiated in actual psychotherapy sessions. Secondly, the dialogical character of the self should be explored through employing a performative micro-analysis of psychotherapy sessions, which highlights the articulation of the positions that make up and enact the client's self. Thirdly, the analysis should focus on the interaction between client and therapist, and should specifically explore the therapist as an interactional other, as a counter- position to the client's position, as an institutional position and as a contributor to the interaction. Finally, the role of sociocultural processes in the contribution of the self and the psychotherapeutic interaction should be actively examined as well as the role of psychotherapy as an institution. It seems that, while all four research approaches accept these points as theoretical premises, not all fully take them into account in the analysis of psychotherapy extracts. With the flourishing of dialogical approaches in psychotherapy practice and research over the past couple of decades, I consider providing an overview of and opening up a discussion regarding dialogical methods of analysing psychotherapy a timely issue and I am very pleased to be part of this discussion. In what follows, I will offer my view on the aspects that a dialogically based approach to researching psychotherapy should include, a programmatic statement on dialogically based analysis of psychotherapy as it were, and I will discuss the four analytical approaches presented in the papers of this section in terms of the way they address or not these issues.