The Concept of Identity and Ego Psychology

Identity, Youth and Crisis' primary aim is to flesh out a clinical conception of human identity and explain its relationship to Erikson's ego psychology. To explain identity, Erikson distinguishes it from a conscious self-conception. Instead, identity is the result of a process of individual identification and the interaction between the individual and society. Both society and the individual define identity. Further, identity is formed as a method of synthesizing all the information that is derived from inner experience and outer experience. Identity is socially and individually constructed but this construction proceeds through a natural, biological process.

Specifically, identity forms and deepens through what Erikson terms 'identity crises.' An identity crisis occurs during a period of life when the stresses of assimilating new information about the world brings about stress on an individual's self-conception and forces the individual to either increase or...