The concept of identity and an understanding of the clinical problems involved remains an area of confusion in the psychoanalytic

literature. This is the result in part of inherent ambiguity in the term, in part of theoretical differences among various authors, and also in large measure of inconsistent use of terminology which reflects a lack of general agreement as to definition and meaning. A number of proposed redefinitions and reformulations are offered which are intended: 1, to bring our understanding of the important terms in line with the dictates of modern structural theory; and 2, to establish a clear but more delimited meaning for the concept of identity as a subgroup of the larger entity, the self, and to specify the relations between them. The clinical and theoretical importance of sexual identity requires that its place in these formulations be independently clarified, along with its interrelationship to the self and to identity.