Volume 5, No. 1, Art. 4 – January 2004

Comment on Thorsten Berndt's Review Essay: "To Go to the Body." Advances in Phenomenological-sociological Identity Theory, published in FQS 4(3)

Robert Gugutzer (Germany)

Abstract: In this Comment I praise Thorsten BERNDT's review of "To Go to the Body." At the same time I "defend" my identity model, connecting identity and to have a body ("Körper") / being a body ("Leib"), in relation to the following five points: 1) identity research in the social sciences neglects the body as a fundamental entity of identity development; 2) MEAD's identity concept has a social cognitive bias; 3) interactionist identity theories need a phenomenological addition of "to have a body"/"being a body," because all interactions are bodily; 4) GOFFMAN talked explicitly about the body, but he never developed an identity theory; 5) gender identity development is as a matter of course seen as based on experiences of difference/diversity.

Key words: identity, identity development, interaction, to have a body, being a body, Mead, Erikson, Bourdieu, Goffman

This contribution is only available as a full text in the German language. German text

Last update: 05/10/2004

Volume 5, No. 1 Table of Contents

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