The 1957 Martin Buber-Carl Rogers Dialogue, as Dialogue

Abstract

This study offers an understanding of human dialogue by examining a 1957 conversation between two of this century's leading proponents of dialogue, philosopher Martin Buber and psychologist Carl Rogers. The study assumes that this conversation was a dialogue (as those principally involved said it was) and asks what we can learn about dialogue through a study of this one instance. We conduct and report a close analysis of the conversation. For all the difficulties caused by the roles assigned to Buber and Rogers, the presence of two silent audiences, and the interpersonal styles of the men themselves, and despite the encounter not matching some idealized conceptions ofdialogue, this study demonstrates that dialogue is not an 'ideal possibility seldom realized" but a concretely realizable and practical accomplishment.