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This article examines the extent to which dream narratives have a special function in the formation of ego identity. The answer to this question is based on a connection of culturalhistorical psycholinguistic and psychoanalytical perspectives. To begin with, the importance of narratives for the formation of ego identity is discussed by pointing out that narratives form an interface between external, communicative and internal, self-directed speech processes as well as in the transition fromunconscious to conscious processes. Dreamnarration and their unique access to the unconscious are examined. The special nature of dream narration in relation to narratives of real experiences and narratives of thoughts result in a continuum of different narrative qualities. Dream narratives, due to their more direct access to the unconscious, have their own significance for the formation of ego identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Crisis of Psychology (1927), Bühler aims at clarifying the notion of psychology. The three indispensable aspects for that clarification encompass the life context of at least twopartners. Therewith, Bühler opens a space of pragmatic questioningwhich he further pursues in his Theory of Language (1934) where he confers language a pivotal role in his investigation of these aspects. An essential element here is the two-field theory with its deictic and symbolic field. Whereas the deictic field is anchored in the sensorial, the symbolic field leads into abstract, invisible spheres; a qualitative shift from one field to the other. It is remarkable that Bühler distinguishes sharply the two fields, but is not tearing them apart so that a dynamic at play between the sensorial and the symbolic becomes visible. The contribution follows the idea of the sensorial-symbolic moment in the work of two contemporaries of Bühler: the linguist Jakubinskij and the psychologist Vygotsky. The encompassing connections between language, body, and other is shown as basis for the functioning of language symbols. The power of language symbols is realized without attributing them to bodyless, individual thinking and without separating them from societal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]