Identity and the courage to be: From Kierkegaard to COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Who am I? How can I be true to myself? How can I be authentic given the world I live in? These questions have been explored by existentialist philosophers, positioning courage in the face of dread as central to the development of a unique, embodied identity. Rather than being a fixed construct, based solely on the circumstances of birth or prescribed roles and stereotypes, identity can be created, after experience and despite anxiety, fleeting, liminal a part of the continued process of individuation. In this chapter I will trace the existentialist approach to identity, from the spiritual dimensions of Kierkegaard and Tillich to the humanist self-determined reinvention of Sartre. I will consider the ontology of selfhood further, particularly through the fleeting temporal and storied conceptualizations of Heidegger and Ricoeur, highlighting our identity as a continuous process of becoming. Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty will also remind us that identity cannot be understood with reference to materiality, specifically our historicity (being in the world) and corporeal body. Any discussion of roles and stereotypes, however, must also consider oppression and marginalization as primary threats to non-being. I will consider critical existentialisms, including the feminism of Simone de Beauvoir, the post-colonialism of Fanon, and the identity politics of Judith Butler. Lastly we will turn to the dynamics of identity in an era of global dread, exploring the ways in which the anthropocentrism of traditional existentialism is inadequate for the crises of climate and Covid-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)