Chapter 15, Culture as Identification Summary and Analysis

Life itself is punctuated by birth and death, but in between these separations there occur many more that involve the development of the individual's identity and self-awareness. From the moment that the newborn child learns to separate itself from the, hitherto enjoined, mother, to the moment when the child progresses on from childhood and enters into the world of adults, there are large differences in various cultures.

Separation crises can, and do, occur at the population-group level. There are large-scale changes in belief systems when old traditional beliefs are given up and replaced by new ones. In general, man resists separations in his life. The struggle man experiences in these situations are based on the undifferentiated part of his psyche that still extends into his environment. The growth of identity-separation dynamisms can also be considered...