Skip to main content
Log in

The Identity Consolidation Inventory (ICI): Development and Application of a Questionnaire for Assessing the Structuralization of Individual Identity

  • Article
  • Published:
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper describes the author's effort to develop a self-rating scale to measure the consolidation of identity in a given individual. It describes the construction of the 35-item Identity Consolidation Inventory (ICI) and, as an appendix to the paper, includes the final version of this questionnaire. The scale's reliability and validity are demonstrated via its administration to 238 normal controls, 80 individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder and 13 subjects with Dissociative Identity Disorder (“multiple personality”). The clinical and research usefulness of ICI lies in the realm of discerning the syndrome of identity diffusion that underlies all severe personality disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akhtar, S. (1984). The syndrome of identity diffusion. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 1381–1385.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Akhtar, S. (1992). Broken structures: severe personality disorders and their treatment. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akhtar, S. & Samuel, S. (1996). The concept of identity: Developmental origins, phenomenology, and clinical relevance, and measurement. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 3, 254–267.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E.H. (1959a). Growth and crises of the healthy personality. In Identity and the life cycle (pp. 50–100). New York: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, E.H. (1959b). The problem of ego identity. In Identity and the life cycle (pp. 104–164). New York: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernberg, O.F. (1970). A psychoanalytic classification of character pathology. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 18, 800–822.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kernberg, O.F. (1975). Borderline conditions and pathological narcissism. New York: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernberg, O.F. (1984). Severe personality disorders: therapeutic strategies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven Samuel.

Additional information

1Ph.D., is Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA.

2M.D., is Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.

Appendix I

Appendix I

Table A1

Table 13 Table a1

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Samuel, S., Akhtar, S. The Identity Consolidation Inventory (ICI): Development and Application of a Questionnaire for Assessing the Structuralization of Individual Identity. Am J Psychoanal 69, 53–61 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2008.39

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ajp.2008.39

Keywords

Navigation