Three classifications of conversational processes --
Conversation, the dynamics of the process of communicative interaction in the living present required for the emergent unstable-stability in the perpetual construction of novel futures in the living present. (Stacey, 2001, 181-183)

• Displaying the dynamics of stability
• conversation is patterned by habitual, highly repetitive themes
• the conversation has little to no potential for transformation
• identity arising in this type of conversation is continuity with little variation
• neurotic -- conversational qualities are lifeless, depressing, even obsessive and compulsive
• Displaying the dynamics of instability
• coherent pattern is lost as fragments of conversation trigger other fragments of little thematic structure
• the conversation is disintegrative, identity is destroyed
• psychotic -- the conversational qualities are manic confusion and distress with fragmenting identity
• Displaying the dynamics of the ""edge of chaos""
• conversation is where patterning themes have the paradoxical characteristics of continuity and spontaneity at the same time
• the conversation has the potential for transformation
• the identity arising is potentially new
• the conversational qualities are liveliness, fluidity, and energy along with a feeling of grasping at meaning and coherence
• there is excitement at the same time as tension and anxiety