“The Casus of Reciprocity” and Other “Inconveniences with Identity”

The concept of “identity”, introduced into the psychological lexicon by E. Erickson and empirically verified by his followers, has now become firmly used by representatives of not only the entire spectrum of the humanities, but also politicians, political scientists, and publicists. At the same time, immediately after the release of the first edition of E. Erickson’s work “Identity: Youth and Crisis”, serious doubts were expressed about the validity and substantive value of using this concept in Russian scientific discourse, which have become unexpectedly relevant today. So what happens to “identity”? Where does a scientific concept end and a common cliche begin? Where is the border between the study of real scientific problems and pseudo-scientific activity? An attempt to give answers to these questions is undertaken by the following author’s thoughts.