책소개
"A tour de force that will be standard work on the subject for years to come....It draws on an enormous body of literature from many different fields, weaves them together in a coherent whole, and address all of the key issues associated with a dialectical orientation....This book is and will be a classic". -- Irwin Altman, University of Utah

"Coherent, persuasive, and useful....Should stimulate considerable research and theory". -- C. Arthur VanLear, University of Connecticut

"A thorough discussion of basic issues....The authors achieve their goal of stimulating a dialogue whose goal is to rethink fundamental issues in the study of communication and personal relationships". -- Kathryn Dindia, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

This book draws on the dialogism of social theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to develop a new approach -- which the authors term "relational dialectics" -- to the study of interpersonal communication. Emphasizing a social self instead of a sovereign self, multivocal oppositions instead of binary contradictions, and indeterminate change instead of transcendent synthesis, chapters examine and critique prevailing approaches to interpersonal communication. Building on these theoretical foundations, the volume rethinks such key areas as relationship development, closeness, certainty, openness, communication competence, and the boundaries between self, relationship, and society, and raises intriguing questions for future research.

Serves as a text in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on personal relationships and interpersonal communication.