ABSTRACT
Over a decade ago (Matos & Gonçalves, 2004), departing from the narrative therapy concept of unique outcomes (White & Epston, 1990), we operationalized the concept of innovative moments (IMs) as instants during the therapeutic conversation in which exceptions to the maladaptive framework of meaning emerge. The concept of the dialogical self as a “dynamic multiplicity of relatively autonomous I-positions” (Hermans, 2001, p. 248) offered a privileged background for the initial innovative moments’ conceptualization and for the theoretical model of change that we have been developing from that moment on. The narrative and other communicative outputs (e.g., signs of tension in the session) observed in psychotherapeutic conversation are the result of different I-positions voicing their own perspectives (for a model with similar features, see also Stiles, 2002, 2011; Stiles et al., 1990). A client’s statement in therapy such as “I am not sure whether I will be able to do things differently” may be voicing an internal I-position (“I as an unable and incompetent person”), and external I-positions of others (e.g., “my mother always told me that I was worthless”). The interactions between these I-positions constitute the dialogical processes underpinning what can be observed in psychotherapy (e.g., complete or incomplete narratives, brief emotional reactions). Moreover, the arrangement between specific internal and external I-positions provides the content and structure for the client’s self-narrative or, as we have most recently designated it, the client’s framework of meaning. Recapturing Wittgenstein’s (1922) famous dictum, “The limits of my Language mean the limit of my world” (5.6), this framework of meaning establishes the limits of the client’s world, i.e., what is possible, what is conceivable, what is plausible, how interpretations emerge, the favorite outcomes, etc. Thus, it is easily conceivable that whenever some I-positions are systematically silenced and overshadowed by the dominant ones, this framework may become too narrow or inflexible, leaning towards the monological polo of the continuum between dialogical and monological relationships (Gonçalves & Guilfoyle, 2006; Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010). Thus, in the case of a monologized self-system, an 121innovative moment could be conceived as an expression of an alternative I-position that challenges the dominant and problematic framework of meaning, potentially expanding the limits of the client’s inner world. These alternative I-positions may be previous silenced ones or new I-positions emerging from new experiences (see the concept of corrective experience in psychotherapy, Castonguay & Hill, 2012). For example, let us take the fictional example of John, a client whose maladaptive framework of meaning is centered on the need to be superior to others in order to avoid being in a fragile interpersonal position, and target of imagined humiliation. This position may become problematic as it leads John to constantly monitor his power relationship with others, searching for signs of anxiety and vulnerability in the self. This pattern is typical of clients suffering from social anxiety. An alternative experience would occur if John was able to express what he sees as a vulnerable self (often highly exaggerating what this vulnerability is), without feeling attacked or humiliated by significant others. The consistent expression of alternative I-positions throughout treatment (e.g., “I as a person who accepts my flaws,” “my friends as trustworthy”) might create a new dialogical tension between I-positions, promoting a more democratic self, with an increased flexibility (see Hermans, Konopka, Oosterwegel, & Zomer, 2017 on the democratic organization of the self). Thus, as illustrated through John’s example, as innovative moments are expanded and elaborated, they stimulate the centrifugal movement of I-positions towards flexibility and change, setting the stage for the construction of a more adaptive framework of meaning and a more open, resourceful and flexible self.
