Model of Analysis of Discursive Positioning in Psychotherapy (MAPP) for the Study of the Reorganization of Subjectivity in Change Processes

From the process perspective, change in psychotherapy can be understood as a progressive transformation of the patient’s subjectivity when interacting with the therapist. One way to understand subjectivity is from the dialogic theories of the self that indicate that the self is not a unitary entity but a composition of multiple states that interact with each other in a dialogic and polyphonic communication process that offers the healthy illusion of unity. As a result of early adverse experiences, these self-states or subjective positions can defensively disconnect and remain dissociated throughout development. Psychotherapy can fulfill the function of making these dissociated positions visible through the therapeutic interaction process and considers therapeutic change as the dialogic reorganization of this subjectivity. This chapter presents the Model of Analysis of Discursive Positions in Psychotherapy (MAPP) that we developed to identify subjective positions in the interactive discourse of patients and therapists and observe how they transform throughout the psychotherapeutic process. We will present the model in its three levels of identification of discursive voices, subjective or personal positions, and classification in the MAPP taxonomy. Finally, we will illustrate how the model allows us to observe the change process through examples of research in which the MAPP has been applied, both in qualitative and mixed designs.