Identity Configurations: A New Perspective

on Identity Formation in Contemporary

Society

Elli P. Schachter
School of Education Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
ABSTRACT This paper deals with the theoretical construct of
identity conguration. It portrays the different possible ways in which
individuals congure the relationship among potentially conicting
identications in the process of identity formation. In order to explicate
these congurations, I analyzed narratives of identity development retold
by individuals describing personal identity conicts that arise within a
larger context of sociocultural conict. Thirty Jewish modern orthodox
young adults were interviewed regarding a potentially conictual identity
issue (i.e. their religious and sexual development). Their deliberations, as
described in the interviews, were examined, and four different congurations were identied: a conguration based on choice and suppression; an assimilative and synthesizing conguration; a confederacy of
identications; and a conguration based on the thrill of dissonance. The
different congurations are illustrated through exemplars, and the
possible implications of the concept of conguration for identity
theory are discussed.

Elli P. Schachter, School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.

This study was carried out under the auspices of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and was supported in part by a grant from the universitys Levi Eshkol
Institute for Economic, Social and Political Research. The author would like to thank
Zev Klein for his thoughtful guidance throughout the study and Yisrael Rich for his
comments on a previous draft of this paper.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Elli Schachter,
School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel. E-mail:
elli_s@inter.net.il.

Journal of Personality 72:1, February 2004.

Blackwell Publishing 2004

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Schachter

In this paper I attempt to portray the different possible ways in

which individuals construct coherent identities from conicting
identications. Following Erikson (1963, 1968, 1975), I will claim
that such identities are constructed by conguring a relationship
among identications, and I will examine the different possible
forms that such a conguration may take.
Erik Erikson formulated his theory of identity formation in order
to address the question of how individuals create an invigorating
sense of personal sameness and historical continuity (1968, p. 18).
Identity, according to Erikson, serves to integrate numerous and
possibly conicting childhood identications. Unorganized multiple
self-conceptions do not allow for a psychologically required sense of
sameness and continuity. Therefore, during adolescence, the ego
reorganizes, synthesizes, and transforms childhood identications
into a single structure. However, notwithstanding Marcias and his
collaborators constructs of identity exploration and identity
commitment (Marcia, 1966, 1980; Marcia, Waterman, Matteson,
Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993), the exact intrapsychic processes underlying such a transformation have not been adequately delineated
(Grotevant, 1987, 1997; Kroger, 1993).
Moreover, it is important to note (cf. McAdams, 1988) that
certain contemporary theoreticians have contested the concept of
the mature individual as necessarily striving towards an integrated
and consistent sense of identity and have suggested that personal
sameness and continuity are socially constructed constraints.
From slightly different perspectives, they all point out that in late
modern or postmodern societies that are constantly changing,
personal sameness should no longer be considered the distinguishing
mark of maturity. (Bauman, 1995; Cote, 1996; Gergen, 1991;
Hermans, Kempen, & Van Loon, 1992; Lifton, 1993; Sampson,
1985; Zurcher, 1977). Gergen (1991, pp. 172178), for example,
claimed that In place of the enduring and identiable self, we nd
fragmentation and incoherenceythe postmodern sensibility questions the concept of true or basic self, and the concomitant
need for personal coherence or consistency. Lifton (1993, p. 4)
wrote that the older version of personal identity, at least insofar
as it suggests inner stability and sameness, was derived from a
version of traditional culture in which relationships to symbols
and institutions are still relatively intacthardly the case in the last
years of the twentieth century. These conceptions of self, rather

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169

than suggesting an innate striving towards a unied identity,

suggest that the more natural psychological state is one of
contradictory tendencies (Gergen, 1968) and multiple selves
(Markus & Wurf, 1987). These conceptions suggest that the
contemporary sociocultural context, rather than promoting identity
synthesis, requires that the individual manage different self-concepts
exibly.
Erikson himself (1968, 1975) was, of course, deeply aware of the
social aspect of identity formation and consistently stressed the role
that historical and social characteristics, such as social stability or
rapid change, play in the creation and maintenance or in the
disruption of a sense of personal sameness and continuity. However,
he stressed that a relatively coherent and integrated identity was the
individuals psychological need as well as societys need, and
therefore in Eriksons view, sameness and continuity in identity
cannot be seen as exclusively social in origin.
The controversy described above is not only over the empirical
issue of whether the individual inherently strives for a sense of
consistent identity, but also over whether this is a desirable
endpoint. McAdams (1988), for example, strongly advocates
Eriksons concepts of sameness and continuity as creating an
individual infused with unity and purpose. Although acknowledging the complexity of modern identity, McAdams sees Liftons
Protean man as lacking coherence, living in inner emptiness and
bad faith (see also Jensen, 1995; Smith, 1994). Marcias ego
identity status theory (Marcia, 1980; Marcia et al., 1993) has
also consistently portrayed the Identity Achievement status as
the most psychologically mature status. Conversely, postmodern
writers describe consistency as a coercive social demand on
individuals, requiring them to choose among socially constructed binary opposites. In their view, individuals should be encouraged
to be exible and to accept the multifaceted, changing, and
contradictory aspects of their psychological existence (cf. Gergen,
1968).
As this controversy pertains to the issue of if and how an
individual creates an integrated identity, I found it helpful to
reexamine Eriksons writings in order to better understand how he
conceived of the intrapsychic process whereby multiple identications are transformed into a unied structure. In order to explain this
transformation, Erikson introduces the concept of conguration:

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Schachter

Identity formation arises from the selective repudiation and

mutual assimilation of childhood identications and their
absorption in a new conguration.
The nal identityyincludes all signicant identications but it
also alters them in order to make a unique and reasonably
coherent whole of themyIt is a conguration gradually
integrating constitutional givens, idiosyncratic libidinal needs,
favored capacities, signicant identications, effective defenses,
successful sublimations and consistent roles. (1968, pp. 159163)
Erikson uses the term conguration in order to bridge the gap
between multiple identications and a single identity. A conguration implies a single set of relations among many components. The
specic set of relations then becomes the focus of attention and can
be considered a single entity. Identity formation is thus the evolving
process of the ego conguring the relationship among childhood
identications (cf. McAdams (1996, 1997) concept of selng).
Using Eriksons terminology, we may now ask, Do individuals
attempt to congure the relationship among their different identications, and what structural forms can these congurations take?
A closer look at Eriksons terminology suggests that he saw three
different processes as being involved in the creation of a conguration: selective repudiation, mutual assimilation, and absorption in a new conguration. Erikson describes these three processes
as occurring conjointly in all identity development. However it may
be analytically helpful to try and distinguish among them. Selective
repudiation seems to refer to a process whereby certain identications are rejected and/or suppressed. Mutual assimilation suggests a
synthesizing process whereby two or more identications somehow
are merged into one, without rejecting either. Absorbing identications in a conguration may point to a third process involved. In this
process different identications are still seen as separate; none are
rejected, and they continue to exist separately side by side. They are
now organized, however, and exist in some sort of dynamic balance
(cf. Nisan, 1990). (In order to distinguish this third process, which
was described using the word conguration from the other two
processes, I will use the term confederacy [McAdams, 1997] to
describe this type of relationship).
According to Eriksons description, the ego utilizes all of
these processes in order to create a personal conguration that is

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171

more than the simple sum of all identications. However, the

distinction I made among these three processes raises the theoretical
possibility that a person may make use of these processes differentially, and this may lead to different types of identity congurations with different patterns of structure and different styles of
commitment.
The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to explore
narrated accounts of identity formation in order to describe and
categorize the attempts made by the narrator to congure a
relationship among conicting identications. Following Grotevant
(1987, 1997), who has called for identity research to place more
emphasis on analyzing the processes that drive identity formation
(cf. Kroger, 1993), this study uses qualitative methods in order to
analyze participants accounts of the deliberative process leading to
identity formation. In listening to individuals descriptions of their
deliberations and choices regarding identity, it is possible to fathom
how they understood the relationships among their different
identications and how they consciously and unconsciously
attempted to transform or redene these relationships in order to
create a more coherent identity.
Another motive driving this inquiry is the supposition that it
may be that the differences noted above between the so-called
modern and postmodern conceptions of identity could be
better understood as resulting from a differential use that individuals
make of the different processes underlying the conguration of
identity.
In order to address these questions, a study was designed that
focused on life stories. McAdams (1988) claims that identity is
synonymous with the individuals evolving, self-constructed life
story. He posits that the identity conguration reveals itself in life
stories as a conguration of plot, character, setting, scene and
theme (p. 29). The life story provides an integrative framework
within which a number of different personicationsycan nd a
common narrative home (McAdams, 1997, p. 64). McAdamss
theory suggests that an individuals effort to develop identity would
be revealed in his or her attempts to create a life story. The life story,
as a conscious manifestation of an identity process, which also has
an unconscious substratum, can be used to help reveal how identity
is constructed and what possible forms identity congurations may
take.

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Schachter

The study reported in this paper dealt with a series of questions

regarding identity construction.1 In this paper I specically address
one of these questionsthe attempt to understand in what ways
individuals construct the relations among multiple identications. In
order to examine this question, I chose to investigate narratives of
individual identity formation revolving around a conictual issue.
Conict can potentially create difculty in the formation of a
coherent identity. Conducting a case study that focuses on personal
conict is similar to what Yin (1984) calls an extreme case. This
increases the researchers ability to focus attention on the process of
identity formation. Concurring with the view that such issues can be
addressed only by taking the psychosocial context into account (cf.
Erikson, 1968; Mishler, 1979), I chose to examine the process of
identity formation among young adults regarding a specic issue
that is known to be conducive to conict within their cultural group.
Specically, I studied conict emerging vis-a-vis issues of religious
and sexual development among individuals maturing within the
Jewish religious group of modern orthodoxy in Israel. Studying
identity formation within a specic and unique cultural group
different from Western middle-class youth can help uncover implicit
cultural assumptions prevalent in identity theory and research
(cf. Kincheloe & McLaren, 1994; Rogoff & Morelli, 1989; Shweder
et al., 1998; Sorell & Montgomery, 2001).
Jewish Modern Orthodoxy

Jewish modern orthodoxy originated in 19th-century Western

Europe as a consequence of the Enlightenment and the emancipation of Jews. Jewish society initially confronted these historic
changes in one of two ways. One main trend was to embrace
modernity through religious reform and assimilation. The other
reaction to the Enlightenment and the subsequent assimilation was a
counter movement that struggled to maintain traditional beliefs and
practices by rejecting modernity outright, viewing it as an existential
threat to Jewish continuity. This nally led to the formation of a
movement known today as Jewish ultraorthodoxy. A third option
1. Presenting the whole study is beyond the focus of one article. This paper deals
specically with the identity congurations formed. Readers interested in the rest
of the study dealing with constraints on the construction of identity are referred
to Schachter (2000, 2002).

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173

that was offered as a solution to this growing schism between

tradition and modernity was modern orthodoxy. Modern orthodoxy
sought to adhere to traditional religious commitments, including
observing the Jewish code of law (Halakha), while, at the same time,
embracing, somewhat ambivalently, many aspects of modernity.
This dialectical approach remains a fundamental characteristic of
many contemporary Israeli Jews, distinguishing them from both
their secular and ultraorthodox co-religionists (cf. Bar-Lev &
Krausz, 1989; Kaplan, 1979; Kurzweil, 1985; Leibman, 1982).
This group was chosen for the study based on the assumption that
maturing within a community that holds a dialectical approach
towards fundamental aspects of reality can be conducive to identity
conict (Bar-Lev & Krausz, 1989; Rapoport, Garb, & Penso, 1995;
Rosenak, 1987). The sexual development of modern orthodox
young adults is one particularly signicant issue that may give rise to
identity conict. Firstly, the Halakha, by and large, forbids
premarital sexual intercourse and other forms of sexual behavior.
Most high schools afliated with modern orthodoxy are segregated
by gender. Many modern orthodox youth, as other Western youth,
defer their marriage late into the second half of their 20s.
Ultraorthodox normatively marry earlier, minimizing potential
conict regarding religious norms and the expression of sexuality,
while Israeli secular youth have, by and large, adopted cohabitation
as normative. Secondly, modern orthodox youth, generally speaking, adopt a favorable attitude towards integrating into secular
Israeli institutions such as universities, the army, and the workplace.
They are exposed to, and sometimes adopt, many modern
permissive secular norms and attitudes. Leisure activities are similar
(Bar-Lev & Krausz, 1989). Notwithstanding, Jewish orthodox
theology is relatively totalistic in its religious perspective and does
not easily allow for a compartmentalized religious identity. Thus,
modern orthodox youth mature in an environment conducive to
identity conict. And from within modern orthodoxy, secular and
ultraorthodox identities are visible and viable and may be seen as
attractive conict-free alternatives.
I interviewed modern orthodox young adults regarding their
religious and sexual development. I inspected interviewees accounts,
searching for the particular way they constructed the relationship
between traditional and modern identications. The issue of
sexuality was chosen as a trigger question in order to tap conictual

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Schachter

material. Sexuality is one domain in which traditional religious and

modern liberal perspectives are potentially at odds; however, many
other domains, such as artistic expression, scientic inquiry, family
relations, also carry the potential of conict between traditional and
modern identications. Therefore, any other narrative accounts that
respondents discussed that had a bearing on conict between
modern and traditional perspectives were considered relevant
material for the study even if they dealt with topics other than
sexuality.

METHOD
Participants
Thirty modern orthodox volunteers, of whom half were male and half
female, their mean age 26.5, answered notices posted on the bulletin
boards of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University
in Ramat-Gan. Both universities have a sizable population of modern
orthodox students, and the latter is ofcially afliated with modern
orthodoxy. The notice called for religious, single, or recently married
students aged 24 or above, for a study on religious, sexual, and social
development. The participants knew in advance that the study dealt with
religion and sexuality, but no mention was made of identity.
Half of the interviews were conducted by the (male) author and half by
a (female) research assistant. Both interviewers, modern orthodox Jews,
interviewed an equal number of male and female respondents.

Procedure
All participants were administered an open interview, conducted in a
relaxed, accommodating, and informal setting. One question was asked:
Please tell me your life story. While telling me the story, I would
especially like you to touch on your religious development and on your
sexual developmentand on any relation you may see between the two.
This question was followed, if necessary, by encouraging respondents to
tell their own story as they saw t, in their own words. Those that found
it difcult were asked to describe their parents and upbringing and to
continue from there. The interviewers responses from then on were
limited to either nondirective requests to clarify or expand on unclear or
laconic remarks, to elicit explanations for decisions when these were not
given, or to request stories exemplifying abstract statements made by the
interviewee (e.g., Can you recall an episode that illustrates what you just

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told me?). The question posed to the participants elicited narratives,

which were constructed as life stories regarding real-life experiences
(Mishler, 1979; Tappan, 1990) with emphasis on a particular theme. I call
this a thematic life story. Interviews lasted on average one hour and a
half. Many respondents expressed surprise at not being asked more
specic questions, but quickly adapted to the request. Two participants
found it impossible to tell a story without being asked specic questions,
and the interviews were terminated prematurely and not included in the
study. Participants then lled out a short questionnaire, with demographic information and one item on their religiosity (cf. Gorsuch &
McFarland, 1972). Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed for
textual analysis.

Narrative Analysis
The texts were analyzed using guided multiple readinga method
based on descriptions of studies conducted both by Gilligan and by
Tappan (Brown et al., 1988; Tappan, 1990), on Alexanders (1988)
strategy of extracting psychobiographic material and asking the data a
question, and on Mishlers (1990) concept of exemplars. Stated
briey, each interview was read several times, each time keeping in mind
different concepts, taken from a list of concepts compiled from Eriksons
identity theory (i.e., identication, crises, selective repudiation, closure,
commitment, etc.). Passages in the text with content bearing on each
concept were highlighted for future observation. The purpose of this
highlighting was not to conrm or reject previously formed hypotheses
through content analysis, but rather to sensitize the reader to possibly
important aspects of identity. Highlighting accentuated the themes of
special interest to the study and allowed focusing on the text from an
identity perspective. The next stage was to ask the data a question
(Alexander, 1988), that is, in what way does the interviewee congure the
relationship among his or her different identications. At this stage, each
interview was analyzed separately as a whole. All texts wherein the
interviewee deliberated what sort of relationship to create among
different identications were given special attention. The third step was
to aggregate the different case studies from the former stage across the
sample in an attempt to create typologies. The different narratives were
compared in a search for differences and for similar recurrent patterns.
Exemplars seen as best demonstrating each typology were chosen and
further analyzed. While not having a specic hypothesis regarding the
different congurations, previous reading regarding identity from an
Eriksonian perspective sensitized me to recognize certain typologies.
However, this worked in both waysnot only did I recognize

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Schachter

congurations similar to those described by Erikson, but another

conguration crystallized precisely because it surprised me and ran
contrary to my expectations. Thus I used the guided reading not in order
to prove or disprove hypotheses, but rather to create new categories for
further theorizing. This is similar to procedures used in grounded theory
research (Strauss & Corbin, 1994).
My personal interest in the subject of this study developed as I myself
and many of my modern orthodox peers found ourselves deliberating
identity issues throughout adolescence and early adulthood. I also later
found myself professionally involved as a clinician treating modern
orthodox adolescents. It often turned out that their particular religious
background had a profound impact on both the development and the
resolution of their psychological problems. As the conductor of this study
and the analysis, I acknowledge being motivated by my feeling that
current theoretical conceptualizations of identity had failed me both
personally and professionally ( Josselson & Lieblich, 2002) in providing a
model of identity development sensitive to the intricacies involved in the
unique circumstances of maturing in a complex sociocultural context.

RESULTS

The reader should note that the respondents were not a representative sample of modern orthodox youth and were not intended to be.
The stated purpose of the study was to investigate identity formation
with regard to identity conict, not to represent modern orthodoxy
per se regarding either sexual behavior or dimensions of religiosity.
As Bryman (1988, p. 90) states, regarding the issue of external
validity of qualitative studies, the issue should be couched in terms
of the generalizability of cases to theoretical propositions rather
than to populations. Furthermore, this research attempted to
demonstrate the plausibility of different typologies of identity
construction, not to assess their relative frequencies in the general
modern orthodox population. Nonetheless, the religiosity measure
was used to verify that, as a group, the pool of respondents saw
themselves as similar to other religious people. Asked to answer the
item Compared to other religious people I amy on a scale from
(1) virtually nonreligious to (9) very religious, the sample ranged
from 3 to 9, the average being X 5:7; and the standard deviation
SD 5 2. Thus the sample, on average, saw themselves as slightly
more religious than other religious youth.

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While describing conicts they encountered in their lives between

opposing identications, interviewees described the particular ways
in which they then proceeded to congure the relationship between
them. My analysis of these texts revealed four basic congurations. I
will describe them briey before demonstrating the results with
excerpts from the interviews. First, a word of caution. Not all
interviewees identities could be categorized neatly into one
typology. The typology approach is used as a tool to illustrate the
differences between types of congurations and not to claim that
these are pure types. Furthermore, the following list is not
necessarily exhaustive of all possible congurations and is offered
as a basis for further research and exploration. These were the four
congurations found:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The
The
The
The

conguration based on choice and suppression.

assimilated or synthesized conguration.
confederacy of identications conguration.
thrill of dissonance conguration.

In the rst of these congurations, the participants constructed

their identity by choosing one identication over the other and
consequently attempting to remold their lives in order to t their
thoughts and behavior to this one identication. The identication
not chosen was rejected or suppressed.
In the second conguration, participants strove to create or nd a
framework in which conicting identications would no longer be
seen as conicting. In essence, they attempted to synthesize or
assimilate the conicting identications.
In both the third and fourth congurations, the individual
continued to hold on to conicting identications, although they
continued to be seen by him or her as conicting. This was done in
one of two ways. In the third conguration, participants kept
opposing identications because they refused to reject either one of
them. Rejecting an identication was seen as rejecting part of the self
and as preventing a sense of wholeness. Although identications
were seen by participants as continuing to conict, and this conict
was seen as an imperfect state, they continued to hold on to all
identications as the best possible solution to the predicament they
felt themselves in. The fourth tendency revealed in the sample was to
create a conguration of opposing identications held together by
the thrill that the interviewees gleaned from having dissonant

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Schachter

identications. The clash between identications lled them with

excitement, challenge, and/or a sense of uniqueness.
I found that the rst three congurations roughly corresponded
to the three processes mentioned above: selective repudiation,
mutual assimilation, and the confederacy of identications. Accordingly, I labeled them using Eriksons (and McAdams) terminology.
The fourth conguration is somewhat different. The relationship
between the different congurations and previous theorizing will be
considered in detail in the Discussion section.
Following McAdams (1988, 1997) claim that the life story reects
the identity conguration, each interviewees narrative was analyzed
as a whole. Demonstrating the different congurations fully would
necessitate detailing multiple case studies, which is beyond the scope
of this paper. Instead, I choose to illustrate each conguration by
one or two prototypical participants.
The Configuration Based on Choice and Rejection: Hayim

Hayim, a 25-year-old man, was born to parents who came from

secular families but became religious themselves. He described his
father as very strict and rigid with a very narrow perspective of the
world. As a consequence of his fathers rigidity, Hayim described
what he called his counterreaction during adolescence: I went
against him in everything, and more and more with regards to
religion.2 Hayim described certain religious convictions of his
father that he found illogical and repugnant. Throughout high
school he associated with similar nonreligious friends from religious
families. However, his friends convinced him that the sole reason for
his irreligious behavior stemmed from his need to defy his father. He
then resolved to simply decide what I really want. Hayims
narrative goes on to describe how the conict revolving around the
issue of his religious identityonce between himself and his father
became an inner conict. Toward the end of high school, he decided
to defer his compulsory army service for 1 year. He acknowledged to
himself that if he went directly to the army, he would quickly
2. All passages and quotations are translated from the Hebrew by the author. I
attempted to translate all sentences in as literal manner as possible, in order to
preserve the original nuances, even if that meant compromising the literary ow.
Sometimes, in order to clarify obscure meanings, I added extra words not spoken
by the interviewee in parenthesis.

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179

become irreligious, and I did not exactly [want to] see myself like
that.
So, before the army, Hayim took a moratorium and went to a
yeshiva (a religious seminary) with the purpose of asking
questions and nding answers. Hayim reported that in the
yeshiva he was given those answers:
Dont get me wrong, it was extremely difcult to decide that I will
be religious, [it was] like agreeing with what my father really
wanted me to bey[but]ythe yeshiva was a place where I could
be under my own guidance and decide truly by myself whats
good for me and what isntyI loved studying there, it was for
myself, not for any other reason and thats why it [what I learned]
was internalizedyOf course, after the year in the yeshiva the
basis of my religious belief got much stronger. Since then, I have
no second thoughts, not even for a momentyfaith and the
foundations of religion are within me, and I understand them,
and since then, they are strong, stable, and like cast iron.
Hayim has described an identity conguration based on choosing
among alternatives. He came to a decision regarding his identity
after a period of questioning and has rejected his former secular
beliefs. This allows for an identity with sameness and continuity.
Later on Hayim said, Now I am in a position that I know what I
am, who I am, where I am, and why I am. Anecdotally, Hayim
used what he learned in an introductory psychology course to
illustrate his point and specically pointed to identity theory
although this was never mentioned by the interviewer. He said,
That really ts in well with whatsisnames theory, Edison? You
should know, the guy with the seven stages.
However, such an identity involves not just choice, but also
entails suppression. Besides the overt rejection of his former secular
behavior, the continuation of his story reveals that he felt compelled
to suppress identications that he associated with nonreligiosity.
After his army service he went to study sculpture
ynot as a potential trade, but just because I enjoy ityNow, on
the other hand, I say to myself, what a waste of time, the most
important thing is to study Torah ( Jewish law) and its also a lot
better for meI mean I get a lot more out of it, and I feel that as

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Schachter

far as this world is concerned, I am just dealing with earthly

matters, and even though I know that in some ways that isnt so
because there can be religious legitimization for a person to do
what he is good at. Anyway, a lot of times I think about leaving
school because I want to study Torah, I want to fortify my
religiosityyI live in a secular social environment, and sometimes
I nd myself getting drawn in.
In this passage Hayim describes how he feels impelled to suppress
his artistic tendencies in order to fortify his religiosity (Rapaport
& Garb, 1998). The secular environment continuously disrupts his
sense of sameness and continuity and endangers his identity
conguration, and so must be constantly resisted.
The Assimilated Configuration: Roy

Roy exemplies the assimilative conguration. He began his

narrative by saying that he was born into a deeply religious family.
From an early age, he was enveloped in an atmosphere of Torah
study. He mentioned that he worked hard at studying and enjoyed it
and that Torah study became a major value for him. At the same
time, he recalled that, as a child, he doubted the truth of many of the
biblical stories and assumed that his father, being a smart man, also
did not really believe in the stories. Roy, though, did not reveal his
doubts to anyone. He noted that in his home and in his school these
doubts had no place to be heard.
Growing up, Roy liked to debate and to argue, often voicing
opinions opposite to those held by others in a conversation. He
argued both with religious and secular people, always taking the
other side of the argument. Roy stated: It wasnt that I was being
dishonest. It was just that both sides existed within me. Roy is
expressing the fact that since early childhood, both religious and
secular identications were part of his psychological makeup. The
religious identications consisted mainly of Torah study, and the
secular identications were mainly organized around issues of
rationality, questioning, and being smart.
Roy began studying Talmud during high school, and he
mentioned that he enjoyed this study very much, putting a lot of
extra hours in it. He stated that he found himself in the Talmud as
its intellectual and inquisitive spirit suited him. He decided to
leave high school to study in a yeshiva. He then faced two options.

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181

The rst was an ultraorthodox yeshiva. He was enthusiastic about

the intensity of study in this yeshiva. The dedication of studying
non-stop, that that is the substance of your whole day and of your
whole life, from morning to evening, and that when you sleepyou
sleep in order to wake up and continue. This totality enthralled
him, but he also experienced this atmosphere as suffocating and
suppressive. The second option was a modern orthodox yeshiva, but
he found the atmosphere of study there relatively bland. Not nding
a yeshiva that fully t his identications, Roy said he became
depressed and torn. Yet, he resisted choosing, and at that point a
third option turned up. Roy found a liberal yeshiva that had both
the intensity of study and also what he described as a Hassidic
atmosphere in which personal questions regarding belief were raised
legitimately and dealt with fully, until their conclusion; without
sweeping things (under the carpet), without denying anything. Roy
had found a place that allowed him both the religious fervor of study
and the option of what he deemed authentic and unconstrained
religious exploration in the intellectual sphere that did not require
suppression or denial of any of his identications.
Roy narrated three stories that demonstrate how people at the
yeshiva served to model different ways of synthesizing apparently
conicting identications.
In the rst story, Roy described himself as a voracious reader and
as someone who loved literature. However, in the course of
entering the yeshiva Roy decided to concentrate solely on his
religious studies and to stop reading secular literature. This is how
he described discussing this issue with a friend:
When I spoke with him about me learning [Torah] and stopping
reading books, and that I think Im going to quit with poetry too, he
said, Roy, thats no good, thats a wrong step. You should continue
and hold on to things that are good for you, keep on listening to
things that are a basic and distinctive part of your personality. That
isnt the way.. That way is an ultraorthodox wayto cut things
offto sever them. Let things continue, let them ow. And it
trickled through. I listened to him and I didnt give up on it.
Roy accepted and identied with his friends advice. Constructing
a homogeneous identity by cutting things off was seen as
undesirable. Roy did not choose between identications because

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that would necessitate cutting off or rejecting part of himself.

However, in order to be able to continue reading secular literature,
Roy needed a friend to point out that this is not the way.
Another story Roy told me was about a class that he attended in
which the rabbi expounded on a Kabalistic passage that speaks of
the good that is hidden in all evil. As Roy recalled the discourse, the
rabbi explained that all evil must have good hidden within;
otherwise, the evil could have no existence. Moreover, the more
evil the act, the more good must be hidden within it in order to
sustain the act. The example of such an act that the rabbi brought up
in class had to do with sexual relations with a prostitute. The
Kabalistic doctrine served in the narrative as a cultural model that
could potentially solve or diminish conict between opposites. What
seem to be opposites are actually not opposites.
The story of reading secular literature, and the story of the
Kabalistic discourse served as the background for the third story in
which Roy faced his most difcult identity crises. Roy recounted how
all his life, and especially in the yeshiva, he enjoyed studying the
Torah and identied with the role of the Torah scholar. Yet, following his philosophical investigations and asking his questions until
their conclusion, he concluded that he no longer believed in G-d.
R:ythis caused a really strong crisis. Because on one hand I came
to realize that I dont really believe anymore, the beliefs just didnt
pass the tests I required of them. On the other hand there was the
Torah studyyI remember staying in bed for days and days. I just
couldntI didnt know what to do with myself, I had a real hard
time with myself. I even thoughtI even thought of suicideyOne
day I got up really late, around 9 oclock, and I bumped into
Rabbi Cohen, and he asked me how I was doing, he saw the
expression on my face. I guess he knew what was happening with
me even though I didnt speak with him much, but he understood
more or less where things stood. He tried to talk to me, but I
didnt want to share my thoughts with him because I wasnt in the
mood. Finally, he said something like If only they forsake me
and yet observed my law.3 He meant, OK, you study Torah,
3. This is a paraphrase of a sentence from the Talmud. The Talmud attributes this
sentence to G-d, saying that he prefers that the children of Israel keep his moral
commandments and forsake his worship than the other way around.

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183

youre still within the framework. I understand that you dont

believe, butnot that its all rightbut youre still within the
possible and accepted framework.
Interviewer: What he said, did that suit you?
R: Oh yes. It really cheered me up.
Roy found that his identications with both studying Torah and
with the intellectual philosophical pursuit for truth led to an
oxymorona nonbelieving, heretical, religiously observant, scholarly Jew. He considered this an unacceptable identity and, as a
consequence, he sunk into a depression. The turning point in this
crisis occurred when the rabbiinvoking G-ds nameacknowledged Roys identity as acceptable and within the framework.
The rabbi in effect said that G-d did not see his identity as
incoherent, and that Roy did not have to choose. In an apparent
paradox, Roys identity was afrmed by a G-d that he did not
believe in anymore. Actually, the afrmation was conferred by the
rabbi as an agent of a tradition and culture that Roy invested with
the power to recognize his identity. His problem with the
incoherence of the identity was not related to its inner inconsistency
per se, but was dependent on it being coherent or incoherent from
societys point of view. The conguration offered by Roys rabbi,
while not proposed as an optimal synthesis, was nevertheless
presented as viable and therefore resulted in an immediate
alleviation of Roys identity crises. The three incidents share a
common theme, namely that important members of society
suggested to Roy that what he considered diametrically opposed
identications could, in principle, be synthesized. The specic
models offered to him are less important than the afrmation that
choosing between identications is not the preferred path to
achieving identity. Such a conguration is thus very dependent on
the availability of socially accepted assimilative models.
The Confederacy of Identifications Configuration: Tali

Tali was a 25-year-old woman when I interviewed her. She began her
narrative by describing herself in early childhood as a neglected
child. Her parents worked late hours, and she often found herself
alone at home. According to Tali, her reaction to this was a
continuous attempt to develop social relationships and to be

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accepted among her classmates. While studying in an Ulpana

(a religious girls high school), she became involved with a boy two
years her senior who gave her ample attention and, at his insistence,
their relationship involved sexual relations. Tali kept this aspect of
the relationship secret. Her mother is described as very conservative.
All association with boys was seen by her mother as something
terrible and dreadful. Tali explained that the relationship was kept
secret because she wanted to keep her ongoing relationship with her
boyfriend and she refused to lose her good reputation. In this
context she remarked, I didnt give that up either. Tali, at this
stage, chose to lead a double life, rather than either lose her
reputation or lose her boyfriend. At her age at the time, considering
her social milieu and her prior history of loneliness, she may not
have felt as though these were feasible options and so may not have
felt as if there was any choice involved. However, the refusal to
reject either her religiosity or sexual life continued later on in life
when these constraints were greatly diminished. Tali left her
boyfriend and subsequently had a series of other relationships, all
of which involved sexual relations. After graduating from the
Ulpana (with honors), Tali went on to do a year of communal
service and then enrolled in the university. She reports that she
continued to dress as a religious girl and continued to identify
herself as religious:
yboth to myself and to society. It was just the matter of sex that
was a bit of an exception in this whole story.
I: Did you perceive this as an exception? Im religious and this is
an exception? Is that what you told yourself then?
T: I saidthere is religion, there is whatever has to do with
religion, and there is being in a relationship with a boy. And that
is something else. Like, its another need. Its a need that I want to
fulll, notwithstanding I enjoy religion, and I want to remain
religious, and I never even considered not being religious.
Tali acknowledged the inherent conict. The way she solved the
conict was through compartmentalizing sex and religion into two
different spheres that did not overlap. They were two different needs
that had to be satised. Most of the time this was not difcult for her
to manage, but sometimes this identity conguration left her

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185

distraught. It is not an easy identity to maintain, especially when

confronted by others who sought to convince her to make sense of
it. Tali described such a situation. While a university student, she
had a secular boyfriend for the rst time. The relationship became
serious, and the prospect of marriage came up. In the interview Tali
recalled discussing her identity with her boyfriend. Reecting on this
discussion, she expressed doubts that her self-constructed identity
exists:
And we had lots of discussions on the subject, because his brother
became a baal tshuva [a penitent], and he really admired his
brother because for him it was everything or nothing, his brother
became ultraorthodox and married someone ultraorthodox. And
he said to me, Like with you its all meaningless, you pick out
whats easy for you to observe and whats not. And I said, Yes,
I choose. Here I always had this kind of conict between, is it all
right to do what I feel like, to embrace tradition, to call myself
masoratit,4 to pick out the attractive things; or maybe such an
option doesnt actually exist? Its like they always told me, There
are rules, and you have to abide by these rules; its either
everything or nothing.
In this excerpt, Tali is stating that the religious way of life she was
living is a life of selective choice. She could pick out the attractive
things from her religious tradition and pick out other elements
from modern societys available lifestyles. This is the confederate
conguration. Both identications exist side by side. Yet in the
interview, when she deliberated what this manner of identity
construction meant, she experienced unease. Both her boyfriend
and a group of people she calls they had argued that its either
everything or nothing. According to her boyfriend, she had no
identity; her identity was meaningless. The inconsistency and
contrariness made the identity meaningless. In response, Tali
rephrased her boyfriends pejorative conceptualization of picking
out whats easy and attempted to embrace the positive identity of
one who chooses or of a masoratit. Yet, reecting on this, she
herself wondered whether the option of masoratit or of choosing
4. The term masoratit, represents a semi-observant traditional group in Israeli
society a group that is unorganized and virtually unaccepted as a viable Jewish
identity by most secular and orthodox religious Jews.

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Schachter

as an identity actually exists. In the interview, Tali afrmed the

same social group (they) that rejects her way of living, and thus
found herself without a socially recognized identity that she herself
could accept.5
This predicament made her identity difcult to uphold. However,
she continued the attempt and knowingly refused to accept the all
or nothing position. She created a conguration in which she
upheld both of her identications at once, choosing when and how
to implement each one according to the particular circumstances she
found herself in. She elected this option rather than making a
permanent once and for all decision. Such a conguration is by
nature precarious, and she found herself continuing to doubt the
viability of such an identity. Many times she described herself as
shallow. Nevertheless, as time went by, she began to accept that this
unsettled identity has a permanent nature. This explains the
following seemingly paradoxical statement:
Its hard for me to accept the way I am now. So my feeling is that
one day Ithat one day there will have to be some sort of a
resolution (decision), but I dont think that day will ever come.
Tali lives with the nagging feeling that a resolution is needed, but
she also accepts that in some ways her indecision is the best possible
solution and is also a permanent one. This position is different
from Marcias moratorium status, which sees identity conict as
potentially solvable through choice and therefore temporary.
Thus, Tali remains with an identity consisting of a confederacy of
identications.
The Thrill of Dissonance: Michael and Motti

The fourth style of conguring identity differs from the rst three in
that the individuals with such an identity take pleasure in
maintaining multiple identications. This may be seen by some as
strange or aberrant, and, personally, this conguration surprised
me. Although not a common conguration in the sample, I
nevertheless wish to demonstrate that it is not a singular case to
be attributed to an eccentric personality. Therefore, I chose to
5. This excerpt may also be analyzed from a feminist perspective, that is, Tali
trying to nd voice, having to deal with the prevailing androcentric, binary,
dichotomous theme of all or nothing (see Sands, 1996).

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187

demonstrate this type of conguration by presenting two brief

examples.
Michael, a 26-year-old man, was born in the Soviet Union, and
emigrated with his religious family to Israel when Michael was 15.
Michaels nuclear family was lax with regard to religious observance, yet they moved into an ultraorthodox communal
neighborhood in order to be close to Michaels very religious
grandmother, who had emigrated some years before. Michael was
sent by his father to a secular high school, and returned home every
day to the neighborhood, removing his kippa (skullcap) on the way
to school, and putting it back on coming home.
During the interview, Michael spoke of an episode in which he
walked into a bookstore wanting to look at a Playboy magazine.
The magazine was enclosed in a nylon shrink-wrap cover, and
Michael asked the saleswoman to open it for him. Michael said she
got furious with him and acidly remarked that he had to buy it rst.
Michael attributed this to the fact that he had forgotten to remove
his kippa. Michael said that she, a secular woman, probably said
to herself Oh, another one of those hypocritical religious people.
He said that he himself, though, saw no contradiction between his
interest in pornography and the fact that he was religious. However,
after thinking about this statement for a short moment and realizing
that this required an explanation, Michael added the following:
M: Let me tell you something. I alwaysthis has to do with my
personalityI never wanted to be a distinct type of person, you
know, there are people that have this particular line,6 you
understand, theyre monochrome. And I always wanted to be
multicolored. Even when I was 12, I, on the one hand went to
piano lessons, and on the other hand, I got into street
brawlsyand all of a sudden it became very enjoyable to mix
the two, you see, on one hand to play Mozart, and on the other,
youre into karate and stuff. I liked those combinations. It was
interesting. And there was this kid, I really admired this character,
he was 11, he went with his violin to a private tutor, and he was
smoking a cigarette on the way. Get it? I really loved that, being
both this and being that.
6. The word line is sometimes used in Hebrew to describe a particular trait or
way of seeing things.

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I: What did you like about it?

M: I dont know, its like being a guy that dances at a few
weddings at the same time.7 It was interesting, it always
fascinated me, to combine two extremities. I liked, I was always
interested in all kinds of unrelated factions, like communist
Kibbutz members, and like Neturei Karta (an ultra-ultraorthodox
faction), anything on the edge. I liked polarities, I liked to know
every one [of them], to be part of every extremity. I think thats
what happened with my religiosity. On one hand, I was in this
religious community, I participated in Hassidic weddings, and the
next moment I was in a secular school. Being in these two
opposite things mesmerized me. Its simply difcult for me to
explain why, but it was always like that. And even when I was in
the midst of the Hassidic dance, I felt good that I didnt belong,
you understand? It was as if I was there, but I didnt completely
belong. A guy wants to belong to every place, he wants to belong,
but not to belong completely, with all his body.
In this passage Michael explained why he was untroubled by the
saleswoman supposedly unmasking his fraudulent religiosity.
Michaels style of identity formation is not to try and transform
conicting identications into a consistent identity. Rather, he has
constructed an identity that allows him to continue to hold on to all
of them. This construction allows him to view himself as multifaceted, and to see his life as interesting and fascinating.
Paradoxically, the contrast between the identications holds them
together. Moreover, this identity allows him to seek out the extreme
forms of commitment and partake of them without feeling that they
commit him. Whereas Tali would probably have been happy if there
were a social identity that allowed her to combine her conicting
identications, Michael took pleasure in the contrast.
Motti, a 24-year-old man, described a similar conguration.
Motti was born to a religious family that he described as not very
strict with regard to religious observance. According to Motti, there
was no intensive religious atmosphere either at home or at school.
He found himself attracted, from an early age, to what he termed the
episodic and piquant, such as extraordinary religious experiences
7. A Hebrew idiom, based on a Yiddish one, meaning trying to enjoy the best of
all worlds.

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189

or ways of study. Motti deferred his army service and went to study
in an institute of advanced religious studies, although he stated that
at this time he was very distant from religious observance. He saw
this as a year off, as a personal moratorium. Three months before
the year was up, he decided to study for the remainder of the year at
a yeshiva in a different city. Motti recounted that on his way to the
new location, he met up with a group of foreign tourists, and spent a
couple of days partying with them. This is what Motti then says:
M: That rapid transitionI nd myself drawn to dissonances of
this type. The abrupt change, from one place to the next.
I: What do you mean by being drawn to dissonances?
M: Im not sure. I never dened this to myself before, but I am very
drawn to spiritual religious experiencesyand I think sex and such
experiences have a lot in common as far as their [psychological]
origin is concerned, at least in my case. However, they are
construed in the mind, and socially, as two oppositesyI am drawn
to religious exciting experiences and to antireligious, or should I
say nonreligious, onesyone stimulates the otheryOn the
experiential level it [the move from one experience to the next]
proceeded to ow smoothly. One day I was here and the next I was
there, and I didnt have any problem with that. Neither experience
harmed the other. I felt comfortable in each place. But as far as the
nal result was concerned, there was an extra shot of adrenaline
that I got out of having both of these experiences so close to each
other.
Motti claimed that this description does not only pertain to
religion and sex. He also noticed the same regarding other
experiences, especially regarding distinct learning experiences.
For me, studying is a sort of an experience; its more than just
acquiring knowledge. The contrast between previous learning
experiences I bring with me from different schools of learning adds
a special and alluring experience, which is also sort of a
dissonance. Its like creating for yourself a kind of schizophreniaycreating two worlds that are apparently completely disassociated. You are engrossed in each one of them [separately] and
you experience them in totality, and at the end of the process when
you sort of awaken or sober upI dont really know how to

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Schachter

describe the experienceits like a shot of vitality, something like

that.
In this passage, Motti began by describing religious and sexual
experiences as socially construed opposites, although they shared
a common origin. This remark might be understood as though
Motti thought that they were not really opposites, and that if they
were not socially considered opposites, then Motti would be
relieved. However, Motti, like Michael, relished the experience of
conicting experiences. Motti stressed the adrenaline and vitality
that followed contrasting experiences in a short time period. Motti
described his conguration of self as creating a kind of schizophrenia in the laymans sense of the word. Motti is thus saying
that his conguration was a way of partitioning his self, a way
that allowed him to experience different aspects of reality, at
different times, while remaining the same person. Two dissociated worlds allow a person to live in each one to its full extent in a
way that would not be possible if he or she attempted to integrate
them.
Michael raised a similar point. His identity conguration allowed
him to experience the extreme without the extreme becoming and
dening his identity. He felt that he could then experience an identity
both from the inside and outside at the same time. Both Michael and
Motti described a transcendent experience. This experience dened
their identity, rather than sameness and continuity regarding the
content of identity.

DISCUSSION

The qualitative and somewhat exploratory nature of this study

requires that the ndings presented above be carefully evaluated
further. Yet, I believe that the usefulness of the concept of identity
congurations has been adequately demonstrated. Individuals
maturing in a complex sociocultural context dealt with their
conicting identications by attempting to congure a relationship
between them. Four distinct possible ways of conguring conicting
identications were identied and described. Such a description can
prove valuable in addressing questions regarding identity development and in illuminating the actual personal meaning of identity to
the individual.

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191

Specically, the concept of identity congurations as presented in

this study raises two points:
First, the debate presented in the introductory section between
Eriksons modern model of identity and the postmodern model
of identity is echoed in the various congurations. I will discuss how
these two contrasting models might interpret the ndings of this
study. However, as I nd these interpretations lacking, I will present
a third perspective that I believe offers a more productive way of
looking at the results.
The rst twothe conguration based on choice (exemplied by
Hayim) and the assimilative conguration (exemplied by Roy)t
well into Eriksons conception of Identity Achievement. The two
identities are relatively coherent and allow for a sense of sameness
and continuity. These congurations also allow for a relatively
closed and committed identity. However, the last two congurationsthe confederate conguration (exemplied by Tali) and the
conguration based on the thrill of dissonance (exemplied by
Michael and Motti)are low in self-consistency and commitment,
and they are open-ended. According to Eriksons model as presented
by Marcia, they might be presented as failures to achieve a mature
identity. Marcias typology might place the third conguration in
the Moratorium status and the fourth in Identity Diffusion. Yet
Marcias categorization fails, in my mind, to adequately capture the
essence of these respondents positions. Tali sees her position as the
best possible solution to a complex situation. Although not
overjoyed with this solution, she nevertheless sees this position as
permanent, and she deliberately prefers it to the alternative of
choosing between two identications, both of which she values. This
is different than the Moratorium position of examining alternatives
with the intent of making a choice. Marcia and his collaborators
explicitly operationalized exploration as involving a desire to
make an early decision because of the subjective discomfort
associated with an identity crisis. An expressed willingness to live
indenitely with uncertainty suggests that the alternatives discussed
are not really under active or serious consideration (Waterman,
1993, p. 163).
As for the fourth conguration, Michael and Motti see their
position as invigorating and purposeful, not as debilitating and
indecisive. These individuals see dissonance as part of their
identitynot as something that undermines it. This is different

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than Identity Diffusion. Of course, the proponents of the ego

identity status theory might assert that the claim that dissonance is
thrilling is a false rationalization employed by immature adolescents
in order to explain their unintegrated and diffuse identity. However,
such a claim entails dismissing offhand, without sufcient basis,
Mottis and Michaels subjective experience, which is unambiguously not diffuse. To the contrary, these individuals are consciously
and decisively rejecting the demand to create sameness and
continuity in identity, preferring instead an alternative model of
identity that enables them to achieve alternative psychological goals.
While some may completely disapprove of their position, this moral
judgment must be distinguished from judging their position
abnormal, immature, or undeveloped.
Ego identity status theorists might alternatively attempt to claim
that the fourth conguration is a fashionable contemporary
metanarrative that certain individuals welcome, as it paradoxically
helps them lend consistency to their inconsistency in a fragmented
culture. Ironically, this would place Michael and Motti as Identity
Achievers, supposedly having chosen a postmodern identity.
However, classifying individuals embracing dissonance and lacking
stable commitment as Identity Achievers entails a complete revision
of the ego identity status theorys description of the phenomenology
of the identity statuses. Thus, to conclude, both the third and fourth
congurations phenomenology are not adequately described by the
ego identity status typology.
Conversely, the third, and especially the fourth, congurations
lack of apparent self-consistency and commitment can be easily
recognized as similar to Liftons (1993) description of the Protean
Man, Gergens (1991) portrayal of the Saturated Self, and Zurchers
(1977) depiction of the Mutable Self. The fourth conguration, in
particular, coheres with postmodern concepts such as playfulness
and celebrating multiplicity. The postmodern position could dismiss
the rst three congurations striving for a consistent identity as an
internalization of a socially imposed constraint. And yet, after
reading the narratives, I nd it awkward to dismiss these three
congurations as stemming from internalized external social
demands, completely writing off a personal agency striving for
some semblance of integrated and coherent identity. Such a
complete dismissal would also have to reject all notion of agentic
personality. Moreover, this dismissal once again denies the

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subjective experience related by the respondents. Lastly, I nd it

difcult to concur in a sweeping generalization claiming that
Michaels and Mottis conguration is the optimal solution to a
world in ux, superior to all other solutions.
Rather than try and use the interviews in order to settle this
debate, each theoretical perspective attempting to explain the other
away, it may prove more useful to accept that there are diverse
possible types of relationships that individuals create among their
conicting identications. The theories presented here may be
echoing different congurations used by different individuals for
different purposes.
The existence of different types of congurations suggests that
individuals can construct identity in more than one way and that the
variation in the construction of identity may be guided by a persons
particular objective regarding his or her preferred structure of
identity, given the complex context of development. It may prove
fruitful to try and uncover such different possible objectives.
The conguration based on choice and suppression seems to be
guided by the search for a sense of coherence based on homogeneity.
The confederate conguration seems to be based on the need
for a sense of completeness, that is, the nal identity is constrained
by the need to include all signicant identications (Schachter,
2002). The assimilated conguration seems to be guided by
both a need for wholeness and a need for consistency, yet it is
dependent on the availability of a synthesized model or the creativity
of the individual creating such a conguration. The last conguration seems to be guided by a need for excitement and stimulating experience. Therefore, this study suggests that identity formation
should be understood in terms of the implicit objectives of
the individual in constructing his or her identity. Individuals constructing identities not only consider the content of the
identity, but also how the structure of the identity they create will
allow them to fulll personally or socially meaningful goals and
values.
What of the question of whether one conguration is psychologically superior to another? Is not a synthesized identity superior to
one held together by the thrill of dissonance or to one made coherent
by choice and suppression? As noted, Erikson claimed that integrated
identity is more than the sum of all identications, suggesting that the
synthesis of conicting identications is superior to unorganized

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identity. However, if we accept that different individuals congure

identity according to different implicit personal objectives, it makes it
somewhat problematic to judge any specic conguration as
psychologically more mature than any other. Roys synthesizing style
of conguration would not serve Michaels objectives well; Michael
might see this conguration as boring, monochromatic, and
unnecessarily constricted. Conversely, Roy might see Michaels
identity as spineless and morally bankrupt. Hayims suppressing an
identication in order to create a relatively unied identity would be
seen by Tali as a decient and maybe even castrated identity, while
Talis inclusion of opposites intended to preserve a whole identity
could be seen by Hayim as incoherent and meaningless.
Each conguration is therefore also judged by the individual on
the basis of personal objectives and cultural values. Each type of
conguration can fulll certain objectives but not others. Each of
the congurations can be expected to have advantages and
disadvantages. Further research is needed to examine the psychological consequences of the different congurations. However, the
more important point is that this third perspective releases identity
theory from including culturally based value judgments on the
preferred method of constructing mature identity by means of
offering a more comprehensive and exible model.
The second point to consider regarding the concept of identity
congurations is that the narratives demonstrate that the different
congurations are very dependent not only on inner psychological
processes but on social and cultural factors too. As Roys story
compellingly demonstrates, one such factor may be the availability
of convincing assimilative congurations. Erikson himself recognized the sociohistorical aspect of identity congurations and
expected that the adult society would provide adolescents with
socially meaningful assimilative models:
The historical era in which (a person) lives offers only a limited
number of socially meaningful models for workable combinations
of identication fragments. Their usefulness depends on the way
in which they simultaneously meet the requirements of the
organisms maturational stage, the egos style of synthesis, and
the demands of the culture. (Erikson, 1968, pp. 5354).
And so whether a cultural milieu presents identity alternatives as
diametrically opposed and mutually exclusive or, conversely, as

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potentially complementary would have a decisive impact on the type

of identity conguration created by the individual.
A second sociocultural factor inuencing identity development
may be the differential cultural importance accorded to values such
as self-consistency versus self-actualization (cf. Baumiester, 1987;
Wheelis, 1958). Whether a culture stresses self-consistency or selfactualization could inuence whether a person develops either an
identity based on choice or, conversely, an identity based on the
inclusion of opposites while resisting the notion of suppressing
identications that might be considered part of the self. And so, as
Cote (1996) noted, different cultures may create different types of
identity and prefer certain types of identity to others. For example, it
may be that the fourth conguration is becoming more frequent in
postmodern society as the cultural value of self-consistency
diminishes (cf. Abelson, 1983; Lord, 1989) and the value of selfactualization soars.
In conclusion, I believe that incorporating the concept of identity
congurations into identity theory can contribute to both our
understanding of the process of identity formation and to our
understanding of the structure of the identity nally formed. Further
research must be done in order to substantiate the concept of
identity congurations and to delineate the concomitant processes
involved in creating and in subsequently sustaining the different
congurations. Other cultural groups embedded in contexts that
juxtapose contradicting perspectives should be studied. It would also
be important to study these congurations longitudinally in order to
ascertain their stability across time, and whether the same individual
may make dynamic use of different processes of congurating
identity across the life-span.
Additionally, viewing identity as a conguration of identications
can have profound implications in understanding the sometimes
bafing phenomena of identity change. Change may be the result
of reconguring the relationship among existing identications
(compare William James explanation of the phenomenon of
religious conversion (1902, chapter 9)).
The perspective offered by this author is that the structure of
identity is the result of a dynamic process that involves a complex
negotiation between personal objectives and contextual cultural
constraints. Moreover, the individuals personal objectives and
values are inuenced and sometimes constituted by cultural factors,

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while the cultural context of development is many times actively

chosen by the developing individual (Lerner, 2002). This suggests
that a universal psychological model of identity development
cannot continue to ignore variations in cultural context, as
context is involved in the most basic processes of identity
development. This also suggests once again (cf. Shweder et al.,
1998), that scientic models of development must take care not to
infuse the discourse of developmental processes with culturally
based normative values.
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