Identity crisis
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A crisis of personal identity.
"The postponement of homosexual behavior in men who know that they are homosexual can cause psychological anxiety and retard mature ego development. The same kind of identity crisis characteristic of heterosexual people in their twenties, in which one discovers, as Erik Erikson puts it, that he is "fatally overcommitted to what he is not," is found in the repressed homosexual."
- 2 distress and disorientation (especially in adolescence) resulting from conflicting pressures and uncertainty about one's self and one's role in society wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The postponement of homosexual behavior in men who know that they are homosexual can cause psychological anxiety and retard mature ego development. The same kind of identity crisis characteristic of heterosexual people in their twenties, in which one discovers, as Erik Erikson puts it, that he is "fatally overcommitted to what he is not," is found in the repressed homosexual."
Etymology
Coined by German psychologist Erik Erikson.