Identity and development

de Harke Bosma

How does a person develop a sense of identity? What shapes it? In what way might our identity change over the years and in what way might it stay the same? This group of academics and practitioners explore these questions through the perspectives offered by psychoanalysis, psychology, history, and literature. Since these disciplines explicitly address both concepts of, identity and development with well-differentiated points of view, the reader is able to see how the perspective offered by one discipline can inform another. The book is organized into three parts (psychoanalysis, psychology, and history and literature), and each section is introduced by a description of the role of each chapter in that section and the role that the section plays in the volume as a whole. The book also includes introductory and concluding chapters that provide the context as well as the summation of a multidisciplinary approach to identity and development. This landmark book shows how reaching across disciplines can help us understand identity and development within their fullest meaning and discover issues or questions that need to be considered within each discipline.