ABSTRACT
Potter and Wetherell have little explicitly to say about the experience of personhood. However, some social constructionists have directly addressed this issue and have attempted to demonstrate how human subjectivity is rooted in the linguistic forms culturally available to us. In this chapter, I will describe two approaches which have a quite different focus from each other, but which are linked in that they try to show how our sense of ourselves as people has its basis in our use of language. The first approach I will describe is that of Harré, who sees our subjectivity as residing in the internal logic or grammar of language. The second approach is represented by Sarbin and by K.J. and M.M.Gergen, and sees our sense of personal history and identity as arising out of culturally available narrative forms.
