Identity as a concept does not appear in psychoanalysis until the work of Erik Erikson in the 1950s, but today it is considered a key factor in understanding individuals and groups. It is a concept of enormous complexity, encompassing biological aspects, internalised object representations that determine the inner world of the subject, and relational aspects in the real world. Answering the question, ‘Who am I really?’ is a task that can span a lifetime. Constructing one’s own identity involves social, cognitive-rational, and unconscious processes. These elements underpin the answer to this question and its corollary, ‘What is my value?’ As we move from looking at individuals in isolation to looking at groups, we are also confronted with processes of identity construction and repair – this time group identities – through movements in which sexuality and its expression in the group play a major role.
This volume begins by exploring how issues of identity underlie many of the phenomena that attract our attention today, both as clinicians and as citizens. It opens with social and political phenomena such as nationalism, where identity issues are most evident, and then looks at individual nations, such as Spain, and their difficulty in maintaining a valuable identity shared by its citizens. This is followed by an analysis of some aspects of social violence and the response to it, electoral processes and the manipulation of citizens, and also the impact on personal and group identity of the contemporary dynamics in large corporations, where double-speak and the infantilisation of employees have become commonplace.
In the second part, Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Torres reflects on how we can understand the sexual functioning of individuals and groups from an identity perspective, emphasising the role of female sexuality as a sentinel element that signals deep group identity dynamics. Gender identities and the social response to new proposals and attitudes in this area, the contrast between desire and submission, and the under-explored complexity of the father’s role in the contemporary family unit also require a look at the role of individual and collective identity.
Finally, the focus is on artistic creation. Mythical authors and mythical works always have an impact on personal and even social identity. Many cinematographic works presuppose that the authors are searching for an answer to the question of identity: who am I? Or rather, who are we? The book concludes with a reflection on the reparative effect that the urban landscape can have on citizens, through buildings and urban plans that relate to people and respond to their desires, both conscious and unconscious.
The book proposes a journey through these three main areas, reflecting on the importance of the construction and repair of individual and collective identity in our lives as social beings, in our attitudes to sexuality and desire, and in our dual role as creators and viewers of art. It is the perfect book for curious minds.
Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Torres, MD, PhD, is full professor at the department of neuroscience, University of the Basque Country; head of the department of psychiatry, Basurto University Hospital, Bilbao, Spain; and training analyst at Centro Psicoanalítico de Madrid. He uses psychiatry and psychoanalysis to frame his clinical, teaching, and research activities, which focus mainly on psychosis and personality disorders – specifically on psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic approaches to both problems. Transference-focused psychotherapy occupies a special place in his clinical practice. Identity issues have been a long-standing interest throughout his career, particularly the intersection between individual and collective identity, politics, sexuality, and art.
Otto F. Kernberg, MD, Professor Emeritus, Weill Cornell Medicine; Training and Supervising Analyst, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research –
‘This extraordinary book provides a comprehensive, updated, and profound synthesis of psychoanalytic investigation of the conflicts between the individual and his/her social, political, and cultural environment. There are three vantage points organising this overview: in Part I, the direct influence of personality structure on the social, political, and cultural environment; in Part II, the particular social impact of unconscious masculinity and femininity; and, in Part III, the essence of the relationship between the individual and the world of art.
‘In contrast to the usual study of unconscious intrapsychic conflicts as determinants of personality structure and individual psychopathology, the emphasis in Part I is on the consequences of unconscious personality features on cultural values and conflicts, ideology and social myths, politics and intergroup – including international conflicts. The psychoanalytic findings about regressed large-group psychology are applied to the analysis of nationalism, social violence, and political leadership. Part II focuses on masculinity and femininity, conscious and unconscious, as influencing social conventionalities, cultural and ethical value systems and biases, and their impact on individual submission and rebellion to the social environment. Part III returns to the intrapsychic world of the individual as affected by the universal conflicts between love and aggression in the encounter with the world of art. Cinema, sculpture, painting, and architecture deliver examples of the emotional dialogue between the artist’s creativity and its challenging the recipient’s resonance to the shock of unavoidable conflict between love and aggression.
‘For the educated lay person, Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Torres provides the understanding of contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory, the underlying analytic frame of this volume, as an original contribution to the existential analysis of identity (“Who am I?”). For the psychoanalyst and mental health professional, it is a unique integration between the psychological conflicts of the individual and the social arena in which these conflicts are experienced in the grand scale of social life and struggles.’
Professor Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge –
‘Who Am I? provides exciting and wide-ranging arguments on the essence of identity. Using his lifelong experience of working with individuals, Professor Gonzalez-Torres moves into the fray of collective identities. Exploring diverse contexts, he reflects on some of the common ways that we encounter and perform identity/ties. These diverse contexts move the reader through different scales of sociability ranging from sexuality to art, grounding us in specific examples. The volume is wonderfully engaging. It is driven by a desire to comprehend and is intellectually jargon-free, neither the “I” nor the “We” are boxed in. This is a debate about identity that is relevant not just to psychiatry but to anyone who wonders about how we are constituted.’
Vamık Volkan, MD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Virginia; past President of the International Society of Political Psychology, American College of Psychoanalysts, and the International Dialogue Initiative –
‘Sigmund Freud used the word “identity” only a few times in his writings. This book delves into psychoanalytic studies on both individual and collective identities, exploring their connections to immortality, sexuality, and the destructive aggression often directed towards perceived “strangers”. I find this book to be highly significant, not only for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists grappling with identity issues in their clients, but also for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of collective dynamics within national and international relationships.’