Identity

Quick musing from good old Jeremy Kyle - what makes our identity?

I think this is possibly one of the most important questions we can ask, and there are probably as many answers as there are people to ask. The issue in question was a girl who'd 'never had what most of us take for granted - identity', because she didn't know if her dad was really her uncle (or vice-versa).

This led me to wonder (and bore my flatmates with the the question) if that really is as important to our identity as we make out. I think identity is definately in part defined by other people's perceptions of us, and this is no doubt influenced by who our parents are. I would have thought though, that our upbringing (whether it was her 'real' dad bringing her up or not) would (or maybe should) be of more importance than who they are. Upbringing will have an important effect on how we act, which is an important part of who we are.


This brings up lots of questions that I'll maybe think about later. Is it our actions or our thoughts that define who we are? If somebody has never met anyone else, do they have an identity? Does the total amnesiac (that wonderful philosophic invention, a man who forgets everything after a few seconds) have an identity?
The neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks' character Jimmie G in The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is a perfect example - he's lost the ability to create new memories due to a degenerative brain condition and the story follows his search for identity.

Just a thought,

andrew