Me, A Name I Call Myself
Reflections On Identity (By A South Asian/Asian/Asian Indian)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8332022 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gurmeet S Kanwal (0000-0002-9870-0544, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York; and Supervising Psychoanalyst, William Alanson White Institute, New York, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 771-785 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0651 • E-ISSN: 1941-2460 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00030651251365610 |
| PMID | 41292442 |
| OpenAlex | W4416684643 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
This essay explores the experiential nature of identity through a social, psychoanalytic, phenomenological, and personal lens. Using reflections on racial, ethnic, and cultural categorization—particularly the tension between “Asian” and “South Asian” identities—the author examines how identity functions as both an internal construction and a reaction to external social mirrors. Drawing from ideas related to embodied cognition, relational psychoanalysis, and existential issues, the paper argues that identity is neither fixed nor merely socially imposed but is dynamically created through lived experience. The essay also considers the emotional stakes of identity loss, the role of racialized and ethnicized experience in fragmenting selfhood, and the fragile longing for continuity in a world of shifting categories
Embodied cognition · Existentialism · Experiential learning · Identity (music) · Identity formation · Personal identity · Social identity approach · Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies · Jungian Analytical Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
| Highly cited | No |
|---|