Can anyone help me with why Messages is crashing since upgrading to osx 10.8?

Question

The error message that I am receiving is as follows:
Process:         Messages [3051]
Path:            /Applications/Messages.app/Contents/MacOS/Messages
Identifier:      com.apple.iChat
Version:         7.0 (3103)
Build Info:      iChat-3158000000000000~2
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [304]
User ID:         501
Date/Time:       2012-07-27 14:04:10.079 -1000
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8 (12A269)
Report Version:  10
Interval Since Last Report:          66726 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           42
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  3922 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   16
Anonymous UUID:                      18101146-5354-42B3-BE92-ABAB752C7014
Crashed Thread:  0
Exception Type:  EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries
Dyld Error Message:
  Symbol not found: _IMHandleRegistrarNameStyleDidChangeNotification
  Referenced from: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SocialUI.framework/Versions/A/SocialUI
  Expected in: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IMCore.framework/Versions/A/IMCore
in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SocialUI.framework/Versions/A/SocialUI

Answer 1

Re installing ML will just install it overtop of your normal settings, it is not a clean install. having said that you should prepare by backing up your system.
The recovery partition is created when you install ML from MAS. (did you do that or do a clean install?)
there are two ways to get to the recovery partition and both ways are harmless if you don't have it.
one, directly to it by holding CMD+R while you hear the boot chime.
two, holding option down during the boot chime and selecting the recovery partition in the list of bootable drives.
once there, I would run disk utiltiy, verify and repair disks and permissions, and then I would run the reinstall Mountain Lion installer.