Dialogue and Desire

This book is an exploration of the relationship between the Russian philosopher, Mikhail Bakhtin, and contemporary dialogical psychotherapy. This exploration lead the author to consider how two central and inseparable dimensions of human experience, language and desire, could be thought about differently by bringing the thinking of Bakhtin into a dialogical relationship with the thinking of the controversial French anthropologist and cultural critic, Rene Girard.The radical difference between these two original thinkers is illustrated in their differing interpretations of Dostoevsky's novels; while Bakhtin finds in Dostoevsky an author who allows his characters the freedom to speak for themselves without passing judgement on them, Girard finds in Dostoevsky an author who is both sympathetic and critical towards his characters because they are consumed with passionate desires that often lead to violence.