Identity, Alterity, Narrative. A Psychodynamic Approach

This article explores the develop-ment of personal identity - construed as a sense of self underpinned by a theory of self - in five steps: the “core self”; mirror self-recognition; the use of the pronoun “I”; alternating use of the pronouns “I” and “you” in dialogue; children’s capacity to connect their bodily and psychological sense of self to their self-image and to report this connection through the sentence “That’s me”. Moreover, the importance of in-terpersonal relationships in the construction of personal identity through mirroring, mentalization, and mutual identification is emphasized. Identity is conceived as a complex system with a “self pole”, involv-ing the dynamics of introjection, and an “I-other pole”, involving the dynamics of projection. Finally, the author analyses how narrative and paradigmatic thinking (both conscious) join with unconscious and preconscious thinking in the definition of one’s own identity.