| Chapter 1: | A Meeting Observed |
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However, all of the aforementioned can be said to relate to how we ‘display’ ourselves to others. To illustrate this, the following reconstructed example of sharing can be used:
The speaker ‘orientates’ himself to a previous speaker’s remarks and his remarks take their trajectory from them (i.e., he continues the discussion about making amends). However he ‘positions’ his present beliefs as being at odds with his former beliefs but in agreement with the previous speaker. This is a position endorsed by the Twelve Steps and AA in general, so it can be said that his position is in ‘alignment’ with a broader framework of beliefs. Furthermore, this realignment of position displays openness to the ideas of AA and a critical position towards his former belief that he could change by himself, that he was self-sufficient. Thus, he is displaying an altered alignment to his problem, one which acknowledges his dependency on the power of AA. In talking of ‘these rooms’ and of being ‘resorted to sanity’ (phrases widely used in AA), he is adopting AA’s terminology and ‘footing’, thus his footing can be said to be that of AA.
The purpose of this example is to illustrate that the interest in language here does not primarily have to do with meaning and representation but is rather related to personal stance, display of self, and the appropriation and assimilation of the words of others. Furthermore, it poses questions about whether the stance taken or the display made reflects the real self, whether there is such a thing as the real self, or whether through adopting stances through discourse we can actually constitute or re-author ourselves.