Back at work with a thought on Identification

Finally, the manuscript of the book is completed and has found its way to the editor who will have a go with it, before it will be back on my desk for further improvements, which takes us to the theme of identification. Identification can be defined in two ways; on the one hand we can identify an object such as a chair, a tree or a person, like I became thoroughly identified with the process to completing the manuscript. On the other hand we can identify with the characteristics of an object, such as the characteristics of ones mother or father. 

This second kind of identification is a psychological process whereby the subject assimilates an aspect of the other, like a property or attitude, wholly or partially and makes it part of its mental makeup. hence it is by means of a long series of identifications that the personality is constituted, specified and established. In other words we are an accumulation of bits and peaces of characteristics of others around and close to us that we non-consciously have acquired and assimilated by means of identification., i.e. we are a bit of each of them.

So the process of identification more or less can be seen as wherever we externally place our feeling of 'I' non-consciously and by means of habit - is where we will identify with. The moment we fully place our feeling of 'I' into our internal sense of 'Self', identification disappears. This is called 'consciously placing ones sense of 'I' wherever we intent to, and no one can do that non-consciously. And what we need to be able to do that, is the faculties of awareness and attention. The moment we are completely identified with a mood or inner state like anger or fear, the moment we have become this state -  our feeling of 'I' and our state has fused and become the same, i.e. we have placed our sense of 'I' in one of our randomly occurring and fluctuating moods. The moment we are aware and more attentive, we will be able to observe this different moods or states and have become more conscious and are less prone to identification. 

So if your objective is to change and become a more conscious person, what you always have to take into consideration and remember is where you have placed your feeling of 'I'.

First published: 19 January 2012

Copyright© Alexander Filmer-Lorch January 2012 all rights reserved