Identity

Ego identity denotes certain comprehensive gains which the individual, at the end of adolescence, must have derived from all of his pre-adult experience in order to be ready for the tasks of adulthood. Identity, in outbalancing at the conclusion of childhood the potentially malignant dominance of the infantile superego, permits the individual to forego excessive self-repudiation and the diffused repudiation of otherness. Such freedom provides a necessary condition for the ego's power to integrate matured sexuality, ripened capacities, and adult commitments.

The term identity points to an individual's link with the unique values, fostered by a unique history, of his people. Yet it also relates to the cornerstone of the individual's unique development. It is the identity of a feature of the individual's core with an essential aspect of a group's inner coherence. The term expresses a mutual relation in that it connotes both a persistent sameness within the individual and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others. In different connotations it may refer to: a conscious sense of individual identity, an unconscious striving for a continuity of personal character, a process of ego synthesis, and a maintenance of inner solidarity with a group's ideals and identity.