ABSTRACT
The last two chapters, relating to sexuality and occupational identity, have dealt almost solely with the practical issues of living. In this chapter we continue with the theme of planning the practical aspects of life, particularly in respect to those aspects beyond career and social relationships, expressed through a variety of choices generating what we might call a life-style. At the same time, we are encountering the existential need to feel that our life is meaningful, and for many this need is met by subscribing to an ideology. The requirement that life should be seen to be meaningful, and the role of things bigger than oneself, enshrined in myths and rel igions, seem to be a fundamental human need. Looking back to commentaries written about 1920, I have in mind the Bloomsbury Group writers, philosophers like Bertrand Russell, and the political commentators hailing the Russian Revolution of 1917. We find a widespread view that religious belief was rapidly fading away and would finally disappear from the world by the end of the century. The contrast between such prophecy and the reality gives cause for thought. A theological argument might be that divine will has intervened, although a cynic noticing that the loss in conventional church membership has been compensated for by a growth in New Age cults and charismatic preachers might recall Chesterton’s words that those who believe in nothing end up in believing anything. To the psychologist the lesson is that the need to believe is very deep rooted in the psyche, whatever the cause may be. For this reason we can appreciate why ideology was identified as the third main arena in which identity can develop.
