An existentialist account of identity formation

An account of James Marcia's identity formation model is given in the language of existentialist philosophy. Parallels between ego-identity and existentialist approaches are examined and identity is described in terms of existentialist concepts formulated by Martin Heidegger (Being and Time) and Jean-Paul Sartre (Being and Nothingness). While identity formation has previously been formulated in terms of ego-analytic theory, this paper argues and seeks to demonstrate that significant benefits accrue from an existentialist account. These benefits include clarification of difficult theoretical issues, delineation of specific research directions and enrichment of clinical understanding.