Abstract

Writing a diary offers an avenue for healing a damaged sense of Self. Diarists record interactions with Others that both confirm and invalidate. Simultaneously, they exercise agency in framing these interactions. In this essay I explore the dialogic nature of 18 diary entries written by “Paul,” an autistic man, who shared them with me during my master's thesis research. Through internally dialogic strategies such as playing with genres, adding layers, and creating characters, Paul captured and resisted invalidating interactions with others. Additionally, by designing his diary to be shared with others, Paul cultivated the space for an I–Thou connection.