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

Ilyin V.A.
Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Department of Social Pedagogy and Psychology, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7784-5616
e-mail: 0405@mail.ru

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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.

Keywords: identity, identification, psychosocial developmental theory

Column: Discussions and Disputations

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/sps.2021120114

For Reference

Ilyin V.A. “The Casus of Reciprocity” and Other “Inconveniences with Identity”. Sotsial'naya psikhologiya i obshchestvo = Social Psychology and Society, 2021. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 222–235. doi:10.17759/sps.2021120114. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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