As identidades da "identidade": sobre os diferentes usos e significados do conceito "identidade" na Psicologia Social

Abstract

This is a conceptual study conducted to analyze the grammar of the term “identity” as used in social psychology texts. Such debate is relevant because this concept is used with different nuances in different theoretical and methodological designs, so that its meaning is the subject of controversy and there are even discussions on its validity and even proposals for it should be abandoned. Based on Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, in this work it is considered that many of these discussions are based on misunderstandings about how a concept works linguistically and in the case, about how the very concept “identity” works. The theoretical and methodological basis is Wittgenstein’s approach to philosophical problems, following the method that this philosopher proposed in his works: Blue Book, Brown Book and Philosophical Investigations. Briefly speaking, this method is a type of analysis of the grammar that rules the use of a word, to observe and describe different cases where a term is used, and then compare these different cases. This is a non-systematic method, but very enlightening. Wittgenstein does not propose to solve conceptual problems, but dissolve them. By this it becomes possible to elucidate how members of a community are employing this term and thus clarify misunderstandings regarding a conceptual problem. Thus, it is shown how the term “identity” appears and is effectively used in the texts of some influential authors in Brazilian Social Psychology: G. Mead and E. Goffman, with a interactional concept of identity; A. C. Ciampa and P. Ricoeur, with a narrative concept of identity; J.-C. Deschamps and P. Moliner, with a representational/cognitive concept of identity. With the proposed methodology, the concept “identity” could be treated as a linguistic object, avoiding an essentialist approach. Through a pragmatic approach, were presented the different uses and meanings of this concept.