From 'the thought is the thinker' to 'the voice is the speaker' - William James and the dialogical self

In 1890, William James provided a rich account of self in his Principles of Psychology. Over a hundred years later, Hermans and his colleagues have provided an equally rich account of self, most particularly in Hermans and Kempen's The Dialogical Self (1993). One of the key distinctions in the former work is that between the 'I' and 'Me', a distinction that Hermans builds on in his concept of the dialogical self. Nevertheless, there are differences between the two theories of self that are developed out of this distinction. In the present article I look closely at some of the differences between the two theories, and also look closely at Bakhtin's contribution to the development of the dialogical self. Through a careful comparison of the works of James, Bakhtin and Hermans, I try to indicate how our understanding of the self has changed over the past hundred years or so. At the same time, the comparison of some of the central ideas of these three authors provides a basis for a critical evaluation of certain aspects of Hermans' theory of the dialogical self.