ABSTRACT
Anyone's identity is a psychologically embedded agent of a many-sided existence, one that must take account of a population of the selves within. Not only does identity contend with the integration of the narrow and the complex, but there is another pair of conflicting phenomena: fluidity and constancy. This chapter shows how the experience of constancy and the accompanying sense of dependable personal identity will be enhanced in the Life Focus Community groups. While communal idioms may be created deliberately, they are also a part of the spontaneous developments in any group. This communal idiom might include special styles of humor, familiar language, marking of endings with a special song or dance, commonality of the life themes people are interested in, and celebrating group experiences. Change would be portrayed as a natural partner to the acceptance of one's own life experiences, the novelty refreshing the familiar but not obscuring it.
