Summary of presentation made as part of the symposium, "A Dialogue on Dialogue," at the

International Society for Theoretical Psychology Conference, Theoretical Psychology Beyond Borders, York University, Toronto, 2007.

Is it possible to listen without listening “for something?” What kind of listening is going on between and among effective dialogic partners? Such questions are relevant to psychologists and psychotherapists, for much of our professional lives are spent listening to people (whether clients, subjects, students or colleagues). In particular, exploring the possibility of non truth-referential ways of listening is important for those psychologists who highlight the subjective, especially those attempting to counter the objectivist truth-referential framework within psychology and philosophy and to construct non truth-referential ways of talking.

Prior to postmodernism, the built-in dualism of theory/analysis and what it was “about” was taken for granted, but postmodernism challenges that dualism—in a socially constructed, relationally responsible, dialogically structured world of human performance, the distinction between subjective and objective loses its theoretical (and perhaps practical) force.  As a challenge to grand narratives—statements that come to be taken as facts (truths) about how the world is (e.g., the grand narratives of progress, modern science, evolutionary theory)—postmodernism questions whether there is anything for them to be “about.” Might we consider having the same stance toward all narratives and, indeed, toward all talk?  If so, then the process of listening in all forms of talk needs examining.  For if there is nothing that narrative (stories, dialogue, conversation, and so on) is about—independent of the meaning constructed by the participants—what exactly is one doing when one is “listening?”  If therapy and teaching, for example, are processes of joint (relational, collaborative) meaning making, in what ways does listening contribute to the activity?  Can one listen without being interpretive?  What are the entities to which it is possible to listen—only individuals, or relationships and groups also? What does understanding what is being said have to do with “hearing what someone is saying?” These and other questions will be addressed from an activity-theoretic and performatory perspective, suggesting that listening can be done completively and improvisationally.