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INTRODUCTION
The syndrome of "identity diffusion" (Erikson, 1959a, 1959b; Kernberg, 1975, 1984) underlies all severe personality disorders including narcissistic, borderline, schizoid, paranoid, and antisocial personalities. It is not found in association with "higher level" (Kernberg, 1970) personality organizations such as hysterical, obsessional, and phobic characters. The assessment of identity consolidation is therefore of immense diagnostic significance; a well-consolidated identity rules out the existence of severe character pathology. While this is generally accepted as given clinical wisdom, no quantitative criteria or methodology exist to ascertain if such psychic structuralization has taken place in an individual. A review of literature by us (Akhtar and Samuel, 1996) revealed that the scales aimed at assessing identity consolidation or its lack thereof fall short of being comprehensive. None of them includes all the seven features of identity diffusion that were earlier outlined by one of us (Akhtar, 1984, 1992); contradictory character traits, temporal continuity of the self, subtle body image disturbances, lack of authenticity, feelings of emptiness, gender dysphoria, and inordinate ethnic and moral relativism.
Attempting to fill this lacuna, we undertook the construction of the Identity Consolidation Inventory (ICI) by operationalizing the seven constituents of identity mentioned above. This paper describes our work in this realm and provides data from empirical research to support its reliability and validity.
METHOD
Construction of the ICI
The seven features of a well-consolidated identity, as described by Erikson (1950, 1956) include (1) subjective self-sameness, (2) consistent attitudes and behavior, (3) stable body image, (4) gender, (5) authenticity, (6) temporal continuity, and (7) ethnicity and conscience. Each criterion was assigned five descriptive features. Statements about these features were then written independently by the two authors. This resulted in a total pool of 70 statements. The authors then met and thoroughly discussed what they had individually produced and then agreed upon the five best items representing each of the seven features of identity. This led to the final 35-item inventory. These 35 items were then...