When the Outside Strikes a Chord Inside: The Role of Identity in Taking Social Responsibility

Abstract

In this article the authors put forward the idea that social responsibility is intimately related to identity in the sense that taking appropriate action for the welfare of others is often the result of processing complex internal experiences. The notion of identity is defined as a dynamic system used to organize the individual’s internal states as well as the boundaries between self and other. The authors use this concept, along with the ideas of exclusion and dissociation, to describe how the individual processes experience and accounts for difficulties that typically occur. A case vignette illustrates how the authors’ theoretical perspective comes to life in a clinical setting. The article expands on the meaning of individual responsibility toward communal life in terms of choices and developmental achievements rather than prescriptions to which individuals must adhere.

Keywords:

• Identity
• social responsibility
• exclusion
• dissociation
• group life
• nonconscious mind

Disclosure Statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes on contributors

Nicoleta Gheorghe

Nicoleta Gheorghe, MA, is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy). She maintains an independent private practice of therapy, supervision, and training in Bucharest, Romania. Before that she was a mathematics teacher for 15 years and then a trainer in a multinational company. Nicoleta can be reached at Sos. N. Titulescu nr. 175, Bl. 14-14A, Sc. 4, apt. 175, Sect. 1 Bucharest, Romania; email: [email protected].

Diana Deaconu

Diana Deaconu is a Certified Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy) and a registered psychologist in Romania. She works in private practice in Bucharest and is currently a coeditor of the Transactional Analysis Journal. She can be reached at 52 Marcel Andreescu St., Bucharest, Romania; email: [email protected].