Role-taking and unconscious conflicts

The discussion about identity in the process of social change in Western nations seems to be the domain of sociologists and philosophists. In the last years, however, there has been an increasing interest among psychoanalysts concerning the question what the psychoanalytic contribution to this interdisciplinary discourse could be. Their common ground is the theory of inner conflicts, but they vary in their comprehension of these conflicts. From the psychoanalytic point of view it could be said that the identity of an individual is formed in the moment when the inner conflicts are balanced in an appropriate way. For sociologists and social behaviourists, however, identity is formed automatically in the daily role-taking process in different social fields. By taking the role of another and balancing it with our own role definition our sense of selfhood can arise. Mead has created the concept of "Me and I" to describe the conflicts of this process. Brede pointed out the different areas of validity both of sociology and psychoanalysis. Her work has been helpful to outline the possible interdisciplinary intermediation of both sciences. Finally, as a conclusion, the potential contribution of psychoanalysis is described as a concept that could enrich the identity discussion. The individual has to balance intrinsic desires against the needs of social interaction, thus emphasising the discontinuity of nature and culture.