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So the questions we have to ask ourselves are: How much do I believe in all that I identify with? What am I giving up of myself to belong? How much do I betray myself because of it? Have I freely chosen to do this or am I acting primarily out of my feelings of loneliness and my fears of abandonment, because I had to give up my I and my free will at an early age due to my innate need to survive as a child?

In everyday psychology, the concept of identity is often equated and confused with the concept of identification. This then leads to pointless discussions and arguments about what is, for example, your typical German or what constitutes a typical white male. Nationalists and global-socialists can spend a lifetime getting into a good tussle about all this.4 Those who equate their identity with identification inevitably end up with a kind of group mentality, as they try to separate themselves from people who are different: ‘As women, we are ...’, ‘The migrants are ...’, ’The right-wing extremists are ...’. As the person spends his time hankering after the group to which he feels he belongs, it means at the same time he must set himself apart from those who do not belong to this group. This creates echo chambers that govern our communication and the way we act.