In praxis the dialectic tensions are created and re-created through the active participation and interaction. Praxis is a philosophical term for the concept of 'practical behavior' or sometimes 'the experience of practicing'. In addition, the individual may move between periods of honest and open communication (Miller, 2005). For example, instances such as an individual fluctuating between disclosure and secretiveness. Movement, activity, and change are functional properties (Rawlins, 1989). Relational dialectics must be understood in terms of social processes. For example, the tension between dependence and interdependence cannot be separated from the tension between openness and privacy - both work to condition and define the other.

In other words, the dialectics cannot be separated and are intrinsically related to each other. Totality suggests that contradictions in a relationship are part of a unified whole and cannot be understood in isolation. For example, in a relationship one can simultaneously desire intimacy and distance. A contradiction is formed 'whenever two tendencies or forces are interdependent (unity) yet mutually negate one another (negation)'. It is the dynamic interplay between unified oppositions. There are four main concepts that form the backdrop of relational dialectics, they are: contradiction, totality, process, and praxis.Ĭontradictions are the core concept of Relational Dialectics. She found a T-Bangha of axes where this dynamic tension operated. īaxter took the deep structural analysis of Bakhtin and applied it to communication theory. Like the Yin and Yang, Bakhtin's forces have no ultimate resolution. Bakhtin conceived the human dialectic as two forces analogous to the physical forces centripetal (emotional forces tending towards unity) and centrifugal (emotional forces tending towards divergence). For example, he identified that the tension that exists between unity and difference. He illustrated the tensions that exists in the deep structure of all human experience. Mikhail Bakhtin applied Marxist dialectic to literary and rhetorical theory and criticism. In the Western world, these ideas hark back to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who held that the world was in constant flux (like fire), with creative and destructive forces on both sides of every process. Like the classic Yin and Yang, the balance of emotional values in a relationship is always in motion, and any value pushed to its extreme contains the seed of its opposite. It is rooted in the dynamisim of the Yin and Yang. Relational Dialectics is the emotional and value-based version of the philosophical Dialectic.

Although Baxter’s description of Relational Dialectics is thorough, it by no means is exact or all inclusive since we all experience different tensions in different ways. Baxter includes a list of Dialectical Tensions that reminds us that relationships are constantly changing and successful and satisfying relationships require constant attention. The Relational Dialectic is an elaboration on Mikhail Bahktin’s idea that life is an open monologue and humans experience collisions between opposing desires and needs within relational communications. When making decisions, we give voice to multiple viewpoints and desires that often contradict each other. Also, “Two’s company three’s a crowd” but “the more the merrier.” These contradictions experienced within common folk proverbs are similar to those we experience within our relationships as individuals. Montgomery simplify the concept by posing “opposites attract”, but “birds of a feather flock together”.

In their description of Relational Dialectics, Leslie A. Rawlins in 1988, defines communication patterns between relationship partners as the result of endemic dialectical tensions. The theory, first proposed respectively by Baxter and W. Relational dialectics is a concept within communication theory.

Relational dialectic theory