ABSTRACT
Relational dialectics theory (hereafter RDT) is a dialogic theory of interpersonal and family communication. An analysis utilizing RDT seeks to understand how meanings are constructed through relational talk. Extending Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism, RDT offers a relationally oriented dialogic theory grounded in a skepticism of monologue (i.e., the silencing of alternative views by one dominant perspective). RDT critiques monologic communication both within the family (e.g., an authoritarian parent’s view) and outside of it (e.g., determinate socio-cultural discourses of how families should be that negate or minimize alternate ways of enacting family). In Bakhtin’s dialogism and in RDT, dialogue is celebrated. In dialogue, multivocality (the presence of two or more, often contradictory, perspectives) and indeterminacy reign supreme. Indeterminacy pushes back against a view of family communication as inherently reproducing the status quo. Indeterminacy allows for communication to serve as a creative endeavor; it privileges communication’s potential to create new meanings within and about families. Certainly, RDT recognizes the monologic potential inherent within family communication; however, RDT critiques these monologic tendencies, favoring instead a dialogic sense in which a cacophony of multiple perspectives struggles to be heard as the family makes—and remakes—meaning.
