ego identity

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«Ego-identity» is the central concept of Erik Erikson’s concept.

Ego-identity denotes the integrity of the developing personality; the identity and continuity of our Self, despite the changes that occur to us in the process of growth and development. Ego-identity is not awareness, but a feeling-feeling «I am developing, but I am the same.» As a conversation about feelings, the search for ego-identity is more of a feminine approach and female psychotherapy.

Where did it come from?

When psychoanalyst Eric Erickson was visited by patients complaining of “losing themselves”, with questions like “Who am I? Is my life directed there, have I gone astray?”, he had to interpret these questions from the point of view of psychoanalysis, translate them into the language of psychoanalysis. Primary drives (Id, «It») are not the answer to the patient’s question «Who am I?» The suggestions and demands of society (you are a son, you are a student, you are a lawyer) are all the more understandable for «Not me», especially for a psychoanalyst. The closest is the concept of «Ego».

According to Freud’s theory, the Ego is one of the elements of the human psyche, acting as an intermediary between the external and internal worlds, and between the Id and the Super-Ego. The ego creates defense mechanisms and ensures the continuity and consistency of behavior by realizing a personal reference point, whereby past events (remembered in memory) are correlated with present and future events (represented by foresight and imagination). Erickson suggested that the ego can form a person’s idea of ​​himself, answer the question «Who am I?», and called this ego-identity.

Content of the concept

Ego-identity denotes the integrity of the developing personality; the identity and continuity of our Self, despite the changes that occur to us in the process of growth and development. «I’m evolving, but I’m the same.»

Who I see and consider myself here and now, in a given situation or in a given segment of my life path, is a personal identity. If I just “know” something about myself, it is rather a personal identity. If I «feel who I am and where I am» it is more of an ego identity. If I can integrate my different personal and social roles, plus feel the continuity of myself and my development, this is an ego-identity.

Ego identity is always more stable if it is reinforced by the people around you.

Erickson defines ego-identity as a «subjective feeling of continuous self-identity» that charges a person with psychic energy, a kind of «creative polarity of self-perception and perception of a person by others.»

The sense of ego-identity is optimal when a person has inner confidence in the direction of his life path. During the crisis of ego-identity, the integrity, identity and belief of a person in his social role disappear or decrease. The most acute and typical identity crisis is the time of youth.

Am I an adult or still a child? Am I the one that’s cool — or the one that’s a nerd? Do I love math or am I just addicted? Am I a believer or is this funny? Am I a patriot or is he? Am I a Pepsi-Cola drinker or a conscious being?

A necessary condition for the formation of ego-identity is the definition of the individual in three main areas: profession, religion and politics.

thinking

Apparently, the concept of «personal identity» does not have a rigid framework and external, scientific, objective criteria. As O.A. Karabanova writes,

“Identity is understood as self-identity and includes three main parameters: self-identity as internal identity to oneself in time and space; recognition of the self-identity of the individual by a significant social environment; confidence that internal and external identities are preserved and stable”.

Recognition of the self-identity of a person by a significant social environment — with all the fragility, apparently, is the most stable basis for this definition. If sensible people who know me well recognize me as me, they can always say that “you remain yourself” (and they like it), then this is somehow verifiable and objective.

If “internal identity with oneself” is understood as a feeling of continuous identity of a person with himself, then this facet of the concept is more difficult. Feeling is a tricky thing. Today one feels one thing, tomorrow another, and sometimes no one knows what you want to think about yourself tomorrow, especially if a person has hysterical, demonstrative features … Nevertheless, it is usually very important for people to “consider themselves to be themselves”, not to go beyond which they themselves consider their natural boundaries.

“I am a woman, not a man. I am a mother, not a creature indifferent to my children. I am honest and loving…”

Ego-identity without psychoanalysis

I understand that a young man (girl) can have a variety of views on himself, on people and on society. In youth, there can be a lot of these views, they can be inconsistent, contradict each other, and with little awareness of them, they often turn into complete fog and confusion. As a result, a person’s behavior and feelings can be unstable, inconsistent, contradict each other and cause bewilderment among others. This is clear.

It is clear that this situation is personally and socially uncomfortable, and with the help of reasonable adults or their own minds, young men and women are gradually putting things in order in their heads. Then they will have a personal identity (definiteness in a static vision of “who I am”, in their personal and social roles for today) and ego-identity (a sense of clarity and certainty of their life path, a feeling “I am going there, everything will be OK). So?

Those who haven’t put things in order in their heads (so far, or at all, they can’t do it) begin to toil. Actually, they would not toil, because they themselves need certainty just like clouds or rivers — that is, they do not need it at all. But you can’t live without certainty in a society, no one wants to deal with such shapeless people, they are somehow told: “Friends, decide who you are with and against whom. What will you study, where are you going to work? And when there are uncomfortable demands, just in case, people begin to worry: “you know. I’m having an identity crisis.» And psychotherapists tell them: “Yes, yes, you have an ego-identity crisis. Welcome to psychotherapy sessions. The task of subsequent psychotherapeutic work is to tell a person how to decide, but to tell him hidden: pretending that this is not a hint from a psychotherapist, but that the person himself discovered this in the depths of his soul.

And he discovers that in youth it is loyalty to one’s choice, later — love and close relationships, then work and care, and towards the end of life — wisdom. These are the kind and reasonable tips of a psychotherapist that a person will find in himself under his strict guidance.

Personal and ego identity

Personal identity fixes the static, who, in what role a person feels himself now. Ego-identity speaks more about the integration of roles and identifications, and this is a sense of development, movement from the past to the future.