Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks

Tom Erik Arnkil

'...The book carefully explains the theoretical basis for dialogical communication, drawing heavily on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, but its great strength is the way these principles have been transformed into a practice of community meetings. Because the authors are drawing on years of experience as well as outcome research studies, they present a framework for a model that is proven and they describe the techniques that make it work. For example, there are helpful sections that spell out what questions to ask a psychotic patient, how to respond to delusions and how to approach other professionals when the network is becoming stuck in its task.'Although the book describes their model in detail, many practitioners find that their ideas about dialogic communication can be applied across a wide range of clinical settings, such as family therapy, but they are particularly useful when multi-disciplinary or multi-agency teams meet to devise treatment for patients...'This Finnish team is widely recognized for the work they are doing, as shown by their writings and presentations at conferences, and this book gives them the space to explain their thinking and practice in greater detail than ever before. It is a major step in bringing their work to the attention of the English speaking community.' - David Campbell and Ros Draper, from the Editorsʼ Foreword'What I particularly appreciated in reading this work is that we are introduced in both Open Dialogues and Anticipation Dialogues to important elements of Bakhtinʼs dialogical theory, together with fresh ideas about networks talking with networks... On a smaller scale, this book feels to me like a trumpet blast, not just in announcing the achievement of a more contextualized approach to human dilemmas, but in offering some solid proof of its efficacy.' - Lynn Hoffman, from the Foreword

• Series Editors’ Foreword , About the Authors , Foreword , Preface , Introduction: on networks and dialogues , Part I , Dialogues at the boundaries between and within professional and personal networks , Frustrating network meetings , Part II , Open Dialogues as crisis intervention , Anticipation Dialogues for lessening worries , Alike but different , Healing elements in dialogues , Part III , Dialogue and the art of responding , Effectiveness of dialogical network meetings , Research and generalizing practices , Epilogue: on power and empowerment