Dialogical Ethics: Imagining the Other

This article explores dialogical ethics in terms of imagining the other. Following Bakhtin it suggests that in the dialogical imagination therapists are like novelists recounting the voice of a character: they take the words of clients and make them their own as part of a therapeutic dialogue or narrative. This is a creative act of the imagination that attempts to make sense of the world through the other's eyes and invites the client to do likewise while contributing a therapeutic intention and perspective. The article draws on the writings of Bakhtin and Levinas and contemporary therapists influenced by their ideas in order to locate therapy as a dialogical ethics. This is illustrated by a detailed example from therapy practice.