Dialogue and Power: A Critical Analysis of Power in Dialogical Therapy (original) (raw)

This article explores the relationship between dialogue and power in the practice of dialogue-orpxtetY, Mnut-knowingn f o m s of therapy. It is argued that pourer of a dyhamic and reuersible kind infuses much ordinary social dialogue, and that the joint processes of power and resistance work togiither to render an interaction dialogical. In. contrast, in dialogical therapy, overt exercises of power threaten the interaction's dialogical status, a d power is deferred and denied by the therapist through not-knowing practices. A case study of Harlene Anderson's (1997) i s used to illustrate that it is precisely power's presence that informs the practices ofnotknowjng and uncertainty that characterize dialogical therapies. It is suggested that the not-knowing therapist withholds aspects-of his or her ooice as a candition for dialogicity. Instead, special $pea king arrangements are required, in which the therapist's not-knowing is continuously communicated to the client, for the therapeutic conversation to remain dialogical. Without these speaking arrangements, 1 argue that therapy moves toward monologue. Tfterapists inherit powerfil speak-* hlichael Guilfoyle ( M A Clin Psych), Lecturer in CIinical Psychology, Psychology Department., Trinity College,,Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland, "el: 1353-1-2885543, Emnil: rncg@zimmnet.