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THE TOPIC OF IDENTITY has always been the source of challenging questioning. What is the exact nature of what we term identity? Is it a link? Is it a force meant to support the cohesion of the self? Is it a relationship among multiple relations? Is it a feeling? Is it the expression of a specific unconscious phantasy? Is it a self-image or one assigned by others? Is it a combination of both perspectives, or something else, something different? Does it exist from the beginning of life or does it develop gradually in the course of evolution? What role does the body play in connection with the feeling of identity? Are individuation, sameness, and identity interchangeable concepts? Besides, what are the relations binding identity with change or nonchange? To what extent can changes be tolerated without irreparably damaging identity? What are the effects of the environmental, corporal, and mental changes upon identity? And, what happens to identity when it is subjected to the pressure of stimuli?
Not long ago, most people seemed to accept their respective identities without any questioning or, at least, without excessive analysis. Something similar happens with the body and its organs; when functioning normally they seem not to exist. But nowadays, due to the swift social, political, and economical changes, identity has become a prime problem for everyone. The question of who one actually is must be reconsidered over and over again.
"I am I" is the usual way to express the feeling of identity as an experience of self-knowledge. Freud (1926) used the term identity only once throughout his work and then in a psychosocial connection. He referred to "many obscure emotional forces, which were the more powerful the less they could be expressed in words, " and related to "a clear consciousness of inner identity based on a certain ability which is common to a group."