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Chapter 6 - Uncertainty in the Self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2022

Hubert J. M. Hermans
Affiliation:
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
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Summary

The experience of uncertainty is outlined at two levels: individual and societal. On the individual level, uncertainty has both positive, constructive implications and negative, maladaptive ones. As a main response on the individual level, the function of promoter positions is delineated, with the Rogerian concept of “organismic valuing” as a prototypical example of an “inner compass.” Organismic valuing as a bottom-up approach is critically discussed, and the dialogical self is proposed as an interchange of bottom-up and top-down processes. On the societal level, the experience of uncertainty is addressed with reference to Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid society and Ulrich Beck’s risk society. Some adaptive and some less adaptive responses to several of the main challenges of our time are sketched: climate change and the corona pandemic. An identity model is presented that consists of identity positions at four levels of inclusiveness: individual, social (group), collective, and ecological, each with their specific types of responsibility.

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Liberation in the Face of Uncertainty
A New Development in Dialogical Self Theory
, pp. 196 - 242
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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