We can become a slave/ a prisoner to the desire and build an identity that allows us to be seen by others how we want to be seen. When we ‘build’ an identity for ourselves however, we are expected to be consistent in the way we behave accordingly in that role. Thus our own identity may become a prison, and experience difficulty trying to break free due to the social structure in which we have built the walls of our confinement, our identity role is embedded.
The paradox is that ‘man is a social creator aswell as a social creature by the social exercise of linguistic power man creates his own identity and reinforces that of others.’ (Becker).
Thus we want to change or even break free from the way that others perceive us, but we are also guilty of forming perceptions of others. By doing so we encourage the cycle to continue, and thus prevent others from changing or expressing their true identity at the same time that they prevent us.
OTHER KEY CONCEPTS
One must avoid the danger of focusing attention on identity at the expense of ignoring the other key concepts that are interrelated in the understanding of identity, namely insecurity, power and equality.
One may come to question their identity if they experience feelings of insecurity. Alternatively, can argue that the reverse holds true, so that feelings of insecurity can stem from the identity that we possess.
As we progress through our lives we take on different roles, each of which may call upon (projecting) different aspects of our identity. Movement between these roles (periods of transition) can trigger off insecurity over our identities. Similarly, lack of role gives us insecurity in social system that is based on institutionalisation of expectations. For example, if upon graduation I decide against entering the world of work, others may see me as lazy and unambitious. the way we perceive ourselves as an individual is largely dependant on society’s reflection of us and thus I can experience feelings of insecurity .
The fear of inconsistency between roles can lead to ‘cognitive dissonance’ that manifests itself in the form of heightened tension and insecurity. One looks to resolve this to form a more grounded identity.e.g I can resolve my earlier problem by entering the labour market.
CHANGING IDENTITY
Last year I interrupted my studies to undertake a gap placement with an investment bank in London. Living alone, away from home for the first time, I was free from parental influence and restrictions, thus I had the opportunity to break out of my conventional mould and in effect, create a new identity.
But I found myself changing very little. Those restrictions which I felt were the attitudes of my parents projected on me had become internalised over time and came to constitute a significant part of my being. Therefore as much as I may have been tempted to go wild, I could not bring myself to do so, as by ‘letting go’ I felt like I would lose myself…my identity.
Theorists such as Fromm (1980) may explain this in terms of the fear of freedom resulting from (amongst other things) the insecurity attached to the uncertainty of the unknown.
Sociologists such as Berger may describe my situation in terms of inability to change due to ingrained social expectations.
IDENTITY AND RELIGION
As a practising Muslim, my belief in God shapes my attitude and my behaviour by setting guidelines for the way I live my life.
Thus one may view this cornerstone of my identity as a prison. However, maybe it isn’t a prison as much as a safety net, ensuring that I don’t go astray! That I lead my life in the way that I have been brought up to believe is just and right, normal for a British Muslim. But from this stems the argument that living up to the label acts as a prison in itself, which has been created both within and by a social structure. By conforming I am repressing my true identity and suppressing to my communities expectations (based on Friere, 1972).
As a British Muslim I am expected to blend into the Western way of living whilst maintaining my ethnic roots/ culture. This can cause a state of unbalance that may manifest itself in anxiety and feelings of insecurity over competing identities.
This reasoning leads me to question to what extent my identity as a British Muslim is a psychic prison? Am I trapped by the conflicting roles that are within me?
The extent to which identity is a prison depends on whether one looks at the having or being mode of existence. This is best explained if looked at in a context, and thus will now look at it in terms of another key concept of security/insecurity.
In the Having mode, security sees it as a possession…ELABORATE IF TIME.
In contrast, in the Being mode there is no insecurity attached to losing what one has. ‘If I am who I am and not what I have, nobody can deprive me of or threaten my security and my sense of identity.’ (Fromm).
Thus, identity is a framework (rather than a prison) that is built to accommodate the individual through its flexible rather than restrictive nature.
At an academic level Friere (1972) sees the banking system of education as a mechanism for restricting expression of identity due to its dehumanising nature. Those who take on the role/identity as students, such as myself, lose their sense of individuality in the classroom. They are transformed into passive recipients of information as opposed to knowledge that would encourage them to grow and question their perception of the world around them and try to discover where they fit into it. i.e. their identity.
Thus the place that I am studying at can be seen as an institution set up with the purpose of ‘moulding’ students into managers of the future. This creates a sense of identity ‘I’m a graduate’ and a purpose ‘I will become a successful manager.’ This carries with it expectations from others, e.g. ‘she successful manager.’ must be intelligent, hardworking and ambitious’, traits which we may feel obliged to fulfil, reiterating the psychic prison analogy.
SOCIAL IDENTITY
We tend to ‘migrate’ towards others who are similar to ourselves, such as those who share similar interests, values and attitudes. One may argue that such groups can limit our identity, which is restricted to operating within the given expected framework of the group to which we belong. Thus the group can be said to represent the bars surrounding our identity.
SIT makes distinction between personal identity (defined by traits) and social identity (defined by stereotypes).
Argue that individuals in a group come to think about themselves in terms of shared attributes. This is reflected in SIT which suggests individuals become depersonalised through attributing their stereotypical group representation to themselves, transforming action and perception. (Tajfel).
IDENTITY AND WORK
‘Early work organizations were located in monasteries, and, later, prisons and workhouses.’ (Townley, 1994). Townley describes how work organisations operate as enclosures, therefore suppress employees identity within them.
My own personal experience in the workplace led me to develop the reverse analogy, whereby my identity was the prison that stopped me from progressing in the work place.
Organisations boast about how they encourage a healthy ‘work-life balance’ but my personal experience showed that there is no room for projecting the fact that you have a life at work! Infact the workplace may be viewed as built to dehumanise the individual into droids.
I should have thought twice before embarking on the job. Stepped back and looked at the other people, evaluated my identity against theirs. I did on a superficial level, went shopping with one of my colleagues and bought matching shoes and handbag!
But underneath the almost identical suits lies an inner sense of self. Once you strip away the layers of cloth, the real you emerge. Can this be changed?
I tried to be myself, bubbly, cheerful, helpful. All was well until I started wanting more, I spoke to my manager about training and development opportunities. She shrugged it off, as did most of the people I approached for help.
I asked my colleague, why doesn’t anyone give me a chance or take me seriously?
‘I don’t think there’s much you can do, its more a problem of the way you are…I guess you smile too much.’
At the time I let his words pass over me as foolish and irrelevant. Little did I know that those words would later manifest themselves in my most inner thoughts, and lead me to develop an awareness of my identity as constituting the lead for the bars of my imprisonment. My project became that of escaping and my plan was to construct an appropriate identity to help me.
One can see it as a strategy to achieve what you want from life. In my case this was a high profile job, I wanted to be like the person I had seen on the graduate brochure, but that meant that I had to change myself, my identity had to be moulded to ‘fit in’ with what they saw as the right type of person. But this is a game that you can play to win, but also risk loosing. In this case it could be seen as embarking on a journey of self-discovery or self-destruction of taking on an identity project that may have severe implications. Will I be convincing? Will I fool others or even start to fool myself? How will putting on a mask 9-5 really affect me, my true identity? Is it worth it?
I came to view the security system that I pass every morning as I entered the office can be viewed as a way of wiping clean my identity and then taking on a standard, droid like identity. Parallels can be drawn with the banking concept of education where one is seen as an empty vessel to be filled. Over time I found it increasingly hard to keep op the role and the mask started to slip. I became confused and anxious around me. I gave up the façade and decided that maybe I wasn’t the right sized/shape vessel to fit into the organisation. Thus i was a prison.
Or, I was able to change the way people perceived me, but didn’t want to.Tthus not a prison.
This links into discourse analysis.
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Whereas SIT focuses on cognitive aspect of identity, discourse analysis takes a linguistic approach. This was investigated by Marshal and Wetherell’s study on students embarking on career as middle class professional lawyers took a disclosure approach to identity representation.
I will attempt to relate this to my personal situation. They looked at the representation of identity as appear in disclosure, i.e.
They found that occupational identity consisted of a set of trait-like characteristics. At the same time respondents demonstrated a strong individual trait of personal identity.
This leads to possible tension between the personal self and the professional self. This relates to my personal situation, whereby people see investment bankers as cold, stern sharp and in contrast I was seen as a warm, cheerful and kind.
This space needs to be bridged somehow, possibly by presenting a model of self that can respond to the situation.
There are 3 possible repertoires, namely traits; roles and humanistic selves:
1/ Right or wrong
self is seen as fixed, thus can either succeed in a particular occupation or not.
‘The individual is not an actor that can adopt different personae and act through different masks.’
2/ reshaping the self
Sees the self as a type which can be altered over time.
View that you can reshape personality so that a new self comes to overlay the underlying essential self. I.e. become a new person, assume a new identity.
3/ the real self shines through
occupational role-playing is seen as inauthentic and a way of impeding and contaminating the self.
Initially unconsciously was 1. Therefore could use these 3 repertoires to explain my situation. I tried to adopt 2nd repertoire to become whom they wanted me to. But they believed I fitted in the 1st rep and I just didn’t seem to fit.
Maybe the problem is the actual face that wears the smile, a young Asian woman didn’t really match the ‘white male middle class banker’ stereotype that I had heard of. Or maybe this wasn’t a stereotype. But those are parts of my identity that I cant change, and nor would I want to. After much discussion and persuasion I was called in for a rigorous round of interviews and appraisals to see if I would be given another chance and be made an offer.
This time last week I felt like my identity was being out on trial. I was expecting the outcome of whether I would be offered a graduate job.
The irony is my manager said in her evaluation that ‘She has a has a very distinct upbeat attitude, a pleasure to have around.’
In my leaving card she wrote ‘keep smiling!’
LIFE WITHOUT IDENTITY
Despite having spent the last few pages describing how my identity prison, I cannot help but question what I would do without it. If this web were broken, where would that leave me? Indeed, what would be left of my identity? Would I gain the security I long for, the belief that I am accepted for whom I am, liked, good enough to be an investment banker?
But is that what I really want? Maybe it is only by being trapped in our identity that we can feel a sense of purpose, an aim, and a desire to escape. But when the barriers come down we feel exposed, bare, and naked. We start to feel a more profound sense of insecurity arising from the fact that I start to doubt myself as opposed to trying to remove the doubt of others.
And so this became my identity project, for the remaining month I tried to change who I was, or atleast what others perceived me to be.
Over time I found that this spilled on to other parts of my identity, the mask started to seep into my skin and became internalised. Significant others picked up on my identity transformation. ‘You sound different, snappy, sharp.’
I hated what I had become and slipped back into my true self.
CONCLUSION
Different parts of our identity may be more of a prison than others, depending on how comfortable we are in them e.g. during my work placement I was v much trapped and felt like my identity was on trial. This can change in diff context e.g. if I was an airhostess my smile would work in my favour.
The degree to which identity can be viewed as a prison depends on many factors.
REFERENCES
Becker, E. (1971) The Birth and Death Of Meaning, London: Macmillan
Berger, P. (1963) Invitation To Sociology , London: Pelican Books
Friere, P. (1972) Pedagogy Of The Oppressed, London: Penguin Education
Fromm, E (1960) The Fear Of Freedom, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Fromm, E (1978) To Have Or To Be?, London: Jonathon Cape
Honess, T. & Yardley, K. (1987) Self and Identity, Perspectives Across The Lifespan, London: Routledge
Knights, D & Willmott, H. (1999) Management Lives, London: SAGE
Shotter, J & Gergen, K.J (1989) Texts Of Identity, Worcester: SAGE
Skevington, S. & Baker, D. (1989) The Social Identity Of Women, London: SAGE
Townley, B (1994) Reframing Human Resource Management, London: SAGE