[Xmca-l] Re: identity expressed or formed by action?

[Stephen Walsh]

I may have to get a coffee and put my thinking cap on a little tighter   :)
Is the impulse (or drive) that was evidenced in the minimal group
experiments to favour our ingroup the same impulse that drives us to give
and accept social support?  I think it may be.

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:

> That sounds good, Stephen, but I don't see any "drive to express identity"
> in there. I do think there is a drive to form and preserve social bonds,
> but this is not the *expression* of affiliative identity; perhaps the
> source of "affiliative identity," and the objective basis for an imposed
> identity (as opposed to a self-identity), but not something created by a
> desire or drive to express a pre-existing identity.
>
> Yes?
>
> Andy
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Andy Blunden
> http://home.mira.net/~andy
> http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
> On 15/02/2017 9:36 PM, Stephen Walsh wrote:
>
>> Hi Andy,
>> I think that the answer is both.  I think we need to think of identities
>> as heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. Looking at identity
>> (dis)continuity following brain injury is instructive. Research we have
>> conducted with brain injury survivors taking part in post acute community
>> neurorehabilitiation shows that identities deriving from the groups we
>> belong to (affiliative identities; e.g. familiy) generate social support
>> which facilitates the formation of 'self as doer' identities (e.g. painter,
>> walker etc etc).
>> Best Regards,
>> Stephen
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 7:30 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:
>> ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>>
>>     I would be interested in any helpful comments (other
>>     than suggestions for more books to read) from my xmca
>>     psychologist friends on this problem.
>>
>>     In discussion with a friend, who is very au fait with
>>     contemporary social philosophy, but knows nothing of
>>     CHAT, suggested to me a number of ideas intended to be
>>     explanatory (rather than descriptive) of current
>>     social and political trends. He talks about the rise
>>     of "expressive authenticity" since the 1970s and
>>     "collective action as a means to express selfhood." In
>>     response, I questioned whether there is any such thing
>>     as a drive to *express* one's identity, and that
>>     rather, collective action (and there is fundamentally
>>     no other kind of action) in pursuit of needs of all
>>     kinds (spiritual, social and material) is *formative*
>>     of identity.
>>
>>     A classic case for analysis is the well-known
>>     observation that nowadays people purchase (clothes,
>>     cars, food, ...) as a means of expressing their
>>     identity. I question this, because it presumes that
>>     there is the innate drive to express one's identity,
>>     which I see no evidence for. I think people adopt
>>     dress styles in much the same way that people carry
>>     flags - to promote a movement they think positive and
>>     to gain social acceptance in it. Identity-formation is
>>     a *result* not a cause of this.
>>
>>     So, am I wrong? Is identity formation a result or a
>>     cause of activity?
>>
>>     Andy
>>
>>
>>     --     ------------------------------------------------------------
>>     Andy Blunden
>>     http://home.mira.net/~andy <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy>
>>     http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-decision-making
>>     <http://www.brill.com/products/book/origins-collective-
>> decision-making>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>