The physical and the social: Exploring the origins of dialogue

According to Bakhtin, the way human bodies interact should be considered as dialogue, whether in friendship or in hostility, whether in respect or in disregard of the humanity of the other’s body. Such a view violates the common sense understanding of the concept of dialogue. An alternative, however similar view, is offered by Fogel, who proposes that interaction between persons is co-regulated, also whether in friendship of hostility. The main difference is that co-regulation does not only occur between persons, but also between a person and a thing. These views are discussed relative to the origin of dialogues, as commonly understood. Examples are drawn from video recordings of mother-infant interaction including a toy. It is proposed that the emergence of self in dialogue presupposes social co-regulative interaction between an adult and a newborn child. The child is biologically prepared for such interaction, however, such preparation does not guarantee emergence of self in the child. Self is content related, that is, depends on concrete experiences of the child shared with the social other. Multiplicity of social others is also the basis for multiplicity of voices in self, and, in extension, the basis for internal dialogues. Keywords: dialogical self; infancy; intentionality; co-regulation; shared experiences