[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

reproduced anywhere, so long as the source is acknowledged.
Ian Heath, London UK
e-mail address:
iheath3.tsm@relative-mindmatter.co.uk
New Ideas in
The Subconscious Mind
Psychology
Home List
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 identity, and the search for happiness
and power. Which 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.
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 changed 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.
Go to Top
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. In a changing world, the attainment of a suitable identity
denotes that the person has resolved some important internal problems
(that is, problems that exist within the mind). 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. 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.
Go to Top
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 identity is only a definition of oneself that is acceptable
and realistic. The fulfilment of the 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 choice of desire becomes available to the person, so the
possibilities for constructing a suitable definition of themself 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.
Go to
Home
Top
Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
All Rights Reserved
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
e-mail address:
iheath3.tsm@relative-mindmatter.co.uk
New Ideas in
The Subconscious Mind
Psychology
Home List
Diagrammes
The diagrammes are collected together from the article  Two
Identities . They indicate the emotional dynamics of the two identities
of each person. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]