Identity and Transformation: I, We, and Other
What is identity? How do we define ourselves to ourselves, to others, to our community or larger public? In therapy, how do patients present their identities to us? What is the mechanism of change – of transformation – that shifts and liberates self?
From the biological to the social, our identities influence how we see ourselves and others. While some identifiers, such as gender and race, may seem obvious, some are hidden from others and even from ourselves. Biology, genetics, and environment begin to form us before we’re born. Parents transmit the code and shape the result. They dream their children into being; we are born into a world that already knows or recognizes us.
Does another’s view of us create identity or change it? Years ago, being called a “nerd” in high school relegated one to outsider status. Today’s kids describe themselves as nerds, and by that moniker identifying themselves as smart or scientific or passionate about some endeavor or interest. What happens to the boy who’s been top of his class through school and finds himself in a college where everybody’s smart, and he’s merely average? What about the aging beauty noticing her crepey skin? Or the American-born, ethnically Korean woman who feels most American when she visits Korea? Issues of culture, class, race, religion gender, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity both bond us and separate us.
Our patients come to us looking for happier lives and more satisfying relationships. We witness dramatic transformations as clients discover themselves. As therapists, we must stay aware of the hidden and not-so-hidden ways that we and our patients deal with our similarities and differences, pregnant with the possibilities for transformation that lie in the exploration of those issues.
How does therapy--- individual, group, and couples--- help with differentiation and individuation? What are the effects of group identities? What are the implications for our divided country, our divided selves, and for the troubled world?
For the summer 2014 issue of Voices, we welcome submissions on the theme of identity and transformation. Direct inquiries and submissions (see Submission Guidelines on the AAP website, www.aapweb.com) to editors Kristin Staroba (kristin.staroba@gmail.com) and Penelope Norton (psynorton@aol.com).
Deadline for submission: April 15, 2014
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