ABSTRACT
Part of the problem is that our presuppositions restrict the language we use and, in turn, the range of thoughts we can normally have about identity. The language that might be developed for this purpose is the language of ownership and belonging. The second job of a language of ownership is to allow belongings to move from one person to another. One person's belongings can become another's, and the primitive psychological mechanisms of exchange. The language of belonging and ownership allows us to define a locus of identity without implying a consistency of content of that locus. Identity derived from the negotiations, deeply embedded in human relationships, over the ownership of parts of the mind and the experiences of them. Experiences of ownership and of intrusion occur within mental life and between personal boundaries. The fear, the violation, and the outrage constitute a very different experience and evaluation, which makes a clear boundary around the sense of ownership.
