“Identity to me is practical. It’s a dramatic role that you play out in the world. And while playing that out, it has to furnish you with a life— which means that it has to be negotiated with other people. When you’re a very young child, you first start to play with who you are; you live in a fantasy world. So that means identity has to expand beyond its egocentric focus and increasingly be negotiated in the social world. ”
- Jordan B. Peterson
Identity foundation and psychological integrity is a necessary part of maturity. Childhood fantasies, often retained in some way or another, have to give way to well-structured, boundaried engagement with others and with experiencing reality in a way that others can be a part of in supportive community. These three principles/identity, experience of reality, and supportive relationships- have been outlined in a simple, ingenious, and intuitive model of supporting mental health by Dr. Mark Ragins in Journey to the Frontier, which summarizes his thirty years’ experience in mental health treatment. It mirrors the holistic approach we’ve been using at Titus 2 for 8 years. So glad to see how the mental health community is evolving in keeping with biblical practice.