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The quest for identity
The decline of the superego and what is happening to American character as a result. 250 pages.
- GenresPsychology
250 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1959
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November 18, 2024What is it like for an entire country to lose its identity? That’s what The Quest for Identity is about. It speaks of the identity of America in the middle of the 20th century. The book documents a shift from one of personal responsibility and accountability to something else. It makes sense, as Tom Brokaw wrote about The Greatest Generation – the one that Chuck Underwood called the G.I. Generation in America’s Generations. Somehow, their focus made it easier for them to find themselves. That is to say that they had the same struggles in identity formation – but it didn’t seem as severe or last for as long. (See Childhood and Society for identity formation.)
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September 21, 2010
Wheelis stated in a chapter on Career and Conflict,
"The more numerous the conflicts the more difficult the choice becomes and the less likely that any one career can resolve them all" (p.206).
I would add, in choice conflict there are the two or more forces within competing against one another that the conflict represents. If you are career conflicted then you have one or more sets of these conflicts at the same time, so pretty soon your conflicts are actually fighting your other conflicts.
But whatever...
I liked this insight about Wheelis' section on Freudian Psychoanalysis and the individual. First generally in the Freudian model, psychoanalysis shifted blame from parents to patient. This is not about justice its about function (p. 169).
Wheelis wrote, "Parents cannot undo their ancient mistakes and society cannot adapt itself to an individual" (p. 206) This is incredible, because isn't the whole functional experience of babyhood and early childhood an experience of this very thing?, I feel myself saying almost starting to cry and wail.
In the 1950's You were either a Freudian or you were not and were expelled from their ranks. Wheelis' also says this sociologically proscribed cultural identity has changed so slowly in the past that society had a character that hardly noticed itself at the juncture of social character change. He is making the claim that the 1950's is the beginning of the acceleration of culture where now our society knows its character is changing. The acceleration of culture?
"The more numerous the conflicts the more difficult the choice becomes and the less likely that any one career can resolve them all" (p.206).
I would add, in choice conflict there are the two or more forces within competing against one another that the conflict represents. If you are career conflicted then you have one or more sets of these conflicts at the same time, so pretty soon your conflicts are actually fighting your other conflicts.
But whatever...
I liked this insight about Wheelis' section on Freudian Psychoanalysis and the individual. First generally in the Freudian model, psychoanalysis shifted blame from parents to patient. This is not about justice its about function (p. 169).
Wheelis wrote, "Parents cannot undo their ancient mistakes and society cannot adapt itself to an individual" (p. 206) This is incredible, because isn't the whole functional experience of babyhood and early childhood an experience of this very thing?, I feel myself saying almost starting to cry and wail.
In the 1950's You were either a Freudian or you were not and were expelled from their ranks. Wheelis' also says this sociologically proscribed cultural identity has changed so slowly in the past that society had a character that hardly noticed itself at the juncture of social character change. He is making the claim that the 1950's is the beginning of the acceleration of culture where now our society knows its character is changing. The acceleration of culture?
December 1, 2008
This book is social commentary presented as scientific theory. The author tries to show how psychoanalytic principles would play out over the course of the life cycle, focusing on the main character early youth and then skipping ahead some years to his young adulthood.
The text implicitly advocates for a stern attitude toward raising children, and the moral fiber that such an upbringing instills. Psychoanalytic theory is woven throughout the book, alternative chapters with the fictional story line. By 1958 Freudian psychology was already on the wane, and this might have seemed out-of-date even then. If you subscribe to old school psychoanalysis, this might be the book for you; otherwise, it will just seem fabricated and forced.
The text implicitly advocates for a stern attitude toward raising children, and the moral fiber that such an upbringing instills. Psychoanalytic theory is woven throughout the book, alternative chapters with the fictional story line. By 1958 Freudian psychology was already on the wane, and this might have seemed out-of-date even then. If you subscribe to old school psychoanalysis, this might be the book for you; otherwise, it will just seem fabricated and forced.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews