Abstract

The essay deals with the necessity of solidarity in the process of the building of the self-identity. Starting from some phaenomenological observations over our contemporary society, we can see, on one hand, that some epochal processes tend to bound the right to a subjective identity of our own, whether not to remove it; on the other, the need for a "recognition" by the others is growing stronger in a still individualistic-looking world. In the author's assessment, our task nowadays is to revisit the "classic" notion of identity, and psychology cannot count itself out of this duty. When approaching the notion of identity, we'd better off leaving aside general and abstract interpretations referred to an even more abstract and universal "human nature": we'd better focusing on a re-definition of the spheres of "private" and "public", and of their reciprocal relation. Self-identity should not be regarded as a possession of the self, with solidarity as its noble corollary, but they both should be seen as the necessary poles of a human existence entirely built around them, and thus capable of inter-communicate with the others. Only inter-communication can give a shared meaning of life, and can act as catalyst for all psychical and psycho-social processes