There are two different kinds of identification. We can identify an object like a tree, a person or a chair without attaching any connotations to it, as well as identification can be seen as a psychological process whereby the subject imitates and assimilates an aspect, a property or an attribute of the other and transforms wholly or partially after the model the other provides. The initial development of personality is constituted and specified by means of a series of identifications. That is I repeatedly identify myself with a characteristic of my father and gradually assimilate this particular characteristic into my personality by means of reinforcing the particular information into the mental makeup through repeated association and imitation.
Simultaneously with the acquirement of personality our history develops as well as that the identification with our physical body increases to such an extend, that the physical body becomes un-separable from our actual sense of self. The trinity that is comprised of our individual personality, the history it can reflect on and the identification with our physical body is the ideal foundation for the growth of imagination. This is that external influences are not perceived by us as such as they actually appear or what they truly represent, but are more or less enveloped in the story we attach to them or imagine them to be, i.e. we more and more will perceive the world and others through our own lenses that are subjective opposed to objective lenses that would be more conducive for establishing a realistic orientation and objective in life.
In most circumstances identification leads to loss of true sense of self and the connection with our centre of gravitas, that is we become what we associate most with. Hence we are caught in a two dimensional interaction between sense of self as subject and external impression or what we do as the object that particular dynamic creates a so-called binary condition or state. The moment we identify with pure awareness within, which is without structure, shape, form or motion - identification annihilates itself due to the fact that there is no concept, idea or connotation attached to pure awareness. How can one possibly identify with something formless that simply only perceives the ‘Isness’ of things.
This brings us back to the great philosophical idea of placing ones sense of ‘I’ or placing ones voice. Wherever we place our sense of ‘I’ or our voice most mechanically that is what we will identify with and become. So we have to step out of the binary state by further removing ourselves from what we have become to be able to see what lays in front of us. This takes us into a three dimensional dynamic, or a so-called ternary condition or state. The ternary state puts us under a much better condition in which we can consciously place our sense of ‘I’ or our voice. This cant be done mechanically or in a state of identification. Consciously placing ones sense of ‘I’ or voice into our true sense of self or centre of gravitas evokes a transformative process that is manifesting as an active potential or so called quaternary condition or state, in which something magical can happen.
We only need to be attentive as well as remember where we have placed or are placing our sense of ‘I’ right now and we instantly will gain more freedom of choice. Hence we choose to identify with our true sense of self or with a multitude of possibilities in form of external impressions and events that surround us and meet us.
First published: 29 March 2012
Copyright © Alexander Filmer-Lorch 2012 all rights reserved
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