CONSTRUCTING ONES SELF IN THE CITY OF THE SILENT - DIALOGUE, SYMBOLS,AND THE ROLE OF AS-IF IN SELF-DEVELOPMENT

Although contemporary psychology claims that the self is related to on e's social and material world, elaborations of how this process occurs are few. The process is developmental in nature, as it entails the tr ansformation of the present person-world relationship. From this persp ective, how one establishes a relation to the grave after the loss of a loved one is a challenging topic for study: The grave is an aspect o f the material world which is not only intimately related to the socia l world (with the deceased), but also to the flow of time as a meeting point of past and future in one's present here-and-now context. From a microgenetic developmental perspective, the grave is seen as transfo rmed into a polyvalent personal symbol in one's attempt to make sense of life, death, and dying, as well as one's own unknown future. Furthe r, using the grave as a symbol, one can continue to relate to the dece ased through the construction of an internal dialogue. Rather than bei ng characterized by rationality or logic, this process implies the tra nscendence of the world 'as-is' by the future-oriented 'as-if-could-be ', in which both the person and the world as-is, as well as the person 's constructed past, are transformed. From an ontogenetic developmenta l perspective, it is argued that this as-if mode of approaching and ma king sense of the world is not inferior or immature, but is rather an important characteristic of human development across all age groups. I nterview data clearly show the role of as-if functioning in self-reorg anization in adults following the loss of a loved one. The process of self-reorganization centers on the grave as both a physical and symbol ic entity and an internalized dialogic partner.