The Future of Identity

Centennial Reflections on the Legacy of Erik Erikson

Edited by Kenneth Hoover

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 June 2004

Length of book:

180 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739155417

As the world bears witness to the terror and warfare provoked by people's sense of who they are, how they are regarded, and what they deserve, we have entered into the 'age of identity.' Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was the prophet of this new age. His lifetime of clinical and interdisciplinary work on human development focused on the formation and maintenance of identity among people of diverse backgrounds: black, white, and Native American; rich, middle class, and poor; male and female. In this volume scholars from various disciplines, some who knew, worked with, and became good friends of Erikson, discuss and assess his legacy, and investigate the challenges that identity brings to the contemporary world. Contributions to this volume frame the challenge identity poses to contemporary scholarship through Erikson's own work, research in empirical and clinical psychology, individual and rational choice theories, Marxism, democratic theories of political participation, fundamentalism, and globalization . Through the book's truly trans-disciplinary scope, Erikson and his scholarship beg to be revisited by psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and students of interdisciplinary social sciences and humanities.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 The Future of Identity
Chapter 3 Remembering Erik
Chapter 4 Erik Erikson: The Biographer's Reflections on a Decade-Long Process
Chapter 5 Why Erikson?
Chapter 6 Identity in Formation
Chapter 7 Identity and Choice
Chapter 8 What Should Democracies Do about Identity?
Chapter 9 Globalization, Identity, and the Search for Chosen Traumas
Chapter 10 Religion and Identity: Deciphering the Construals of Islamic Fundamentailsm

Many prominent developments in our time-globalization, multiculturalism, and postmodernism-have rendered the issue of identity crucial and urgent. In reaction against a bland universalism and the perceived danger of Westernization, we see the emergence ofidentity politics, often with a vengeance (e.g. religious/ethnic fundamentalism). There is much discussion in the literature today about what identity means; but the discussion is often confused, emotional, or tendentious?. As Kenneth Hoover points out in his Introduction, this work can provide a corrective to a number of currently fashionable, but ultimately faulty perspectives on identity. Against these perspectives, Erikson offers a balanced and socially more sensitive and responsible alternative?. Publication of this volume will no longer permit anyone to ignore this alternative..