From personal towards agonistic constructivism

Abstract

We propose to consider a new constructivist approach that is rooted in Heraclitean agonism, Kelly’s constructivism, Foucault’s analytics of power, and Hermans’ dialogical self theory. One of its key assumptions is that the dynamics of psychological life result from the interplay between the opposing tendencies towards long-term dominance and plurality of personal perspectives or voices rather than from the establishment of the core organization of semantic processes. The agonistic approach further implies that a person cannot possess a coherent and integrated self as a singular center of psychological processes. Instead, we propose a model of the self as a decentralized, socially constructed, tensed and ever-changing strategic situation embracing personal voices, other people, interpersonal relations and the institutionalized context as equal protagonists that are immersed in the struggle for predominance. The agonistic approach to constructivism brings additional categories of relations between the dimensions of personal and social meanings as its practical benefit. Examples from relevant identity research and psychotherapy show that voices are not exclusively superordinate or subordinate to other voices, as is the case in the system of personal constructs, but can cooperate with other voices, oppose them, identify with other voices while partly questioning them, and can be modified by other voices while keeping their own ideologies.