The Need for a Stable .Identity

in a Changing World

A person’s consciousness can be considered to be constructed around two major concepts : the search for an identity, and the search for happiness and power.

Which of these two concepts is primary ? . Above all else a person needs some form of stability in his life. And the most basic form of stability is to have a stable identity. Therefore identity comes before power and happiness. [¹]

In a stable society, or in a society that changes only slowly, a sense of identity is taken for granted and so the search for happiness and power takes centre stage.

However, in a rapidly changing society, a stable identity can no longer be built securely on external factors such as material possessions and a socially-recognised place in life. Only a person’s own abilities – whether practical, creative, intellectual, ethical – can form the basis of a secure identity. Therefore, in a rapidly changing society, the search for meaning in life usually becomes directed into the desire to attain a stable identity.

The widespread discontent in Western countries has occurred because the fast pace of technological and social change has altered traditional roles that used to help determine a sense of identity. People who feel threatened by such change are having problems with their sense of identity ; those people who can ride such change can access feelings of power.

Everybody needs a sense of identity. An identity can take many forms : it can be psychological, social, sexual, individual, cultural, political, religious. So identities can be arranged in an hierarchy. A child begins at the psychological level (for example, ‘ I am the son of my parent ’). As an adult, we work our way through the various levels, perhaps having a different identity at different ages. Which level we focus on at any particular time depends on how we subconsciously interpret our internal conflicts and sorrows, and on the order of importance that we put them in.

The manner in which we handle the greatest crisis, or crises, in our life will determine which level of identity is the most important to us. If we use religion for consolation, then our religious identity takes centre-stage. If we use community support, then our social identity takes the mantle of importance. If we rely only on our own abilities and strengths, then our individual identity is supreme. [2]

In a stable society, problems are usually traditional problems, and have recognised means of resolving them. In a changing world, problems are often new ones, breeding new conflicts and needing new strategies for their solution. Some of these problems will be internal problems (that is, problems within the subconscious mind that have become activated by the increasing stress-levels). Such problems often generate long-term mental conflict and sorrow, which I call psychic pain.

In a changing world, the attainment of a suitable identity denotes that the person has resolved some important internal problems. The attainment of a suitable identity means that some psychic pain has been released from the subconscious mind. Only when psychic pain is released is the person also released from the past, the past that the problems had kept him / her chained to.

Identities are often fragile and can be lost. A changing world implies that a person can lose an apparently stable sense of identity. For example, a political revolutionary, who believes in the necessity of violence to achieve his ends, will find it difficult to accept a peace process. The establishment of peace may mean that the revolutionary will lose his political identity.

The attempt to achieve a stable sense of identity in a changing world means that the person has to work their way through all the conflicts that the world throws at him or her. These conflicts become the content of the process of abreaction. [³]. In a changing world, new forms of conflict arise. Abreaction therefore throws up new ideas and beliefs, often with aspects of immorality attached to them. This means that a person seeking a new identity may be going into the unknown, and may be going into regions of consciousness that were traditionally considered to be forbidden.

For example, the sexual revolution in Britain and the USA from the 1960s onwards was a time of experimentation and diversity. This revolution threw up much sexual dross, but out of it came new and better attitudes to sexual expression and sexual identity. [4]

In a world of change, how does a person create and stabilise an identity ? - through the agencies of desire and emotion.

If I desire something of major importance to me, then that something becomes part of my definition of myself.

A sense of stable identity is only a definition of oneself that is acceptable and realistic.

The fulfilment of the important desire helps to establish the identity. If the desire generates satisfactory emotional experience then an aspect of identity becomes stabilised ; if the emotional experience is unsatisfactory then that aspect of identity is likely to change or fade away. As more choices of desire becomes available to the person, so the possibilities for constructing a suitable definition of himself become more diversified. Hence choice is the basis of personal development.

Having established an identity, then the next step is to make it an harmonious one. The virtue of achieving an harmonious sense of identity is that it enables a person to achieve self-respect. Self-respect implies that internal conflict has decreased. Conversely, for a person to respect themself they must first achieve harmony in their sense of identity.

An harmonious sense of identity is necessary since at some time in the future the person will be likely to handle power. If an identity is not secure and harmonious then power will not be handled safely : the use of power will eventually reveal the areas of instability within the ego. Therefore the need for an identity comes before the need for power. Neither power, nor happiness, nor even wealth is an adequate compensation for a loss of identity.

In a rapidly changing world, a flexible individual identity is difficult to attain and a social identity can be precarious, and so the dream of a permanent state of happiness becomes an elusive goal. Only choice has real value. The meaning of choice is that it enables a person to begin the attempt to construct his / her own sense of identity. Only when this is secure and harmonious is it possible for a person to handle power and happiness without being corrupted by them.

The number in brackets at the end of each reference takes you back to the paragraph that featured it. The addresses of my websites are on the Links page.

[¹]. An article on Power describes the link between power and happiness. This article is on my websites The Strange World of Emotion and Discover Your Mind. [1]

[²]. There is a section on our social and individual identities in the article on Confusion, on my websites Discover Your Mind and The Strange World of Emotion.
How these two identities are constructed is the subject of the article Two Identities. [2]

[³]. My in-depth analysis of the process of abreaction is given in the five articles on Abreaction. See home page. [3]

[4]. There are several articles on sexual themes on my website The Strange World of Emotion. [4]

The articles in this section are :

Two Identities

Effects of Infancy Trauma

Need for a Stable Identity

Diagrammes

Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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The copyright is mine, and the article is free to use. It can be reproduced anywhere, so long as the source is acknowledged.

Ian Heath, London UK

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