Michael Mascolo: Dialectical Thinking is the Antidote to (Political) Dogma

A Salon of the Center for Applied Dialectics, www.applied-dialectics.org
Michael F. Mascolo, Ph.D.Professor of Psychology, Merrimack College; Director, Creating Common Ground, Inc;
Dialectical thinking is based on the presupposition that it is possible to resolve thecontradiction between two opposing what ideas through the integration of opposites.Dialectical thinking implies openness to alternative ways of thinking without self-abnegation. If this is so, then dialectical thinking is the antidote to dogma - includingthe political dogmas that define the ideological polarities of partisan politics. In this talk,I describe how dialectical thinking can be used to bridge divides in partisan politicalthinking. I describe how the process of dialectical engagement can be used to resolveentrenched socio-political conflict. Dialectical engagement is organized around twomodes of social conflict resolution: collaborative problem-solving and ideologicalengagement. Collaborative problem-solving resolves political conflict by constructingnovel ways to meet the diverse human needs that motivate conflicting political positions.In ideological engagement, social partners seek to construct novel and partially sharedideological beliefs through the constructive integration of opposites. I illustrate theprocess of bridging political divides through an analysis of how a group of six individualsfrom diverse political orientations used dialectical engagement to reach broadconsensus on the issue of capital punishment.

[@LearningForPsychotherapists]

Great lecture.