Becoming who I always was: The role of holding environments in maintaining identity narratives

Abstract

How are identity narratives maintained over one's lifetime when neither the enactment of one's work role nor the organised holding environments can be assumed? In his autobiography, Ahluwalia continues to narrate himself as a mountaineer, despite the end of his mountaineering career following a war-induced disability. Locating his account alongside the existent literature on identity work within holding environments, I clarify the processes through which different holding environments – the interpersonal and the relatively impersonal – can facilitate the maintenance of individuals’ identity narratives and how the environments themselves may be shaped over time.

Keywords

• Holding environment
• Identity work
• Identity maintenance
• Autobiography