In the present age of generalized distrust, affective polarization, post-truth, and the spread of disinformation, dialogue is, at the same time, compromised and urgently needed. The central question in the book is how the self can respond to those challenges and how dialogue can help the individual to deal with them in an open-minded way. On the assumption that society and self are intensely interconnected, the neglection of dialogue in the public domain is not separated from dialogical processes in the self. Therefore, the focus of the book is on the question of how generative dialogue can empower and enrich the self so that it is better equipped to give appropriate responses to the mentioned problems of our time.

The basic structure of the book is an identity model consisting of four levels: individual, group, human, and ecological. Traditionally, the emphasis in both psychology and daily life is on individual and group identities with the simultaneous neglection of human and ecological identities. The basic message of the book is that individual and group levels can be and should be transcended by the human and ecological identity levels. This leads to a series of educational guidelines intended to create dialogical relationships between and within the selves of different people, with special attention to the merits of the human and ecological identities.

Hubert J.M. Hermans is the founder of Dialogical Self Theory and one of the most prominent figures in narrative psychology, based in The Netherlands. As Full Professor of Psychology he was associated with the Radboud University of Nijmegen. In 2002 he was decorated as “Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion” for exceptional scientific achievements in the service of society. Hermans is the first author of around 200 publications, mainly on the Self-Confrontation Method and Dialogical Self Theory. His work has led to a series of international conferences on the dialogical self.