Identity is a crucial human need
“Many can’t go there, and many would rather die.” A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The preservation of one’s identity is an overlooked aspect to the key to an individual’s motives and drives.
A person’s perception of his or her identity is underrated and underestimated when it becomes to how they will behave and the choices that they will make. In television and movies, this can be seen in the corrupt police officer. He is on the take, and everyone knows it. However, the mafia boss makes a mistake and pushes just a little too hard and the cop finds his roots and takes down the mob, in spite of the consequences to his career and personal life.
Identity is the one thing that is always changing, and it is what makes people unpredictable. When identity asserts itself, there is no going back. That person will fight tooth and nail to protect that identity at great personal cost to him- or herself.
People who do not seek help when they need it are a perfect example of identity over everything else. While Maslow’s hierarchy places food at the bottom. Someone who has only crackers and ketchup in his or her kitchen will refuse to get food from a food bank or go to a soup kitchen, even if it means they go without food, if he or she is not the kind of person that goes to soup kitchens.
Someone so far in debt that he or she cannot pay it back will not declare bankruptcy if he or she believes that paying back debts forms a particular part of his or her personality. People don’t go to doctors because they aren’t the kind of people that need doctors. Dad doesn’t call the plumber because he can fix things, even if he hasn’t fixed anything correctly since 1983.
It doesn’t even matter if the identity trait involved is accurate. It only needs to be perceived by the person whose identity is in question.
The preservation of one’s identity is an overlooked aspect to the key to an individual’s motives and drives.
A person’s perception of his or her identity is underrated and underestimated when it becomes to how they will behave and the choices that they will make. In television and movies, this can be seen in the corrupt police officer. He is on the take, and everyone knows it. However, the mafia boss makes a mistake and pushes just a little too hard and the cop finds his roots and takes down the mob, in spite of the consequences to his career and personal life.
Identity is the one thing that is always changing, and it is what makes people unpredictable. When identity asserts itself, there is no going back. That person will fight tooth and nail to protect that identity at great personal cost to him- or herself.
People who do not seek help when they need it are a perfect example of identity over everything else. While Maslow’s hierarchy places food at the bottom. Someone who has only crackers and ketchup in his or her kitchen will refuse to get food from a food bank or go to a soup kitchen, even if it means they go without food, if he or she is not the kind of person that goes to soup kitchens.
Someone so far in debt that he or she cannot pay it back will not declare bankruptcy if he or she believes that paying back debts forms a particular part of his or her personality. People don’t go to doctors because they aren’t the kind of people that need doctors. Dad doesn’t call the plumber because he can fix things, even if he hasn’t fixed anything correctly since 1983.
It doesn’t even matter if the identity trait involved is accurate. It only needs to be perceived by the person whose identity is in question.