In:Dialogues of the Clinic: Encounters across medicine and beyond
Edited by Mariaelena Bartesaghi and Shelby Forbes
[Dialogue Studies 36] 2026
► pp. 20–45
Chapter 1Can dialogue unfold in clinical settings without a multimodal
disposition?
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
As clinical psychologists familiar with the philosophical
provocations of new materialism(s), we take dialogue as a multimodal
process in which clinicians participate with their whole bodies and
as an occurrence that includes both human and non-human actors.
Using Multimodal Conversation Analysis (MCA), we examine five
extracts from a first clinical session with Giovanna (GA), a young
adolescent diagnosed with severe anorexia nervosa. We adopt Ingold’s (2020) concept of
correspondence, which describes a knowledge-making process that
emerges through direct engagement with both material and
non-material entities. Unlike the notion of betweenness, where
separated entities are joined, in-betweenness suggests that these
entities are produced through their linking with one another. We
expand the concept of dialogue (as correspondence) through three key
perspectives: (1) dialogue as extending beyond verbal/oral
communication, (2) materiality as an integral component of the
dialogical process, and (3) dialogue as going beyond the boundaries
of the “actual conversing couple.”
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.From dialogue as inter-action to dialogue as correspondence
- 3.Multimodal conversation analysis and psychotherapy research
- 4.Positioning
- 5.Context and rationale for data selection
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
Notes References
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