A coherent identity joins all the facets of our total or comprehensive identity (see full description) together in a consistent and well-balanced design. It is a combination of our biological, emotional, mental and subtle identities in one dynamic, meaningful and organized whole.
In other words, a coherent identity encompasses our conscious ego, functional dimensions and personal outer environment as well as the unconscious organisation of our system. It includes our biological limitations, our unfulfilled potential and our conscious and unconscious life history. The coherent self will always assert some form of inclusive ‘sense-of-self’ based on our complete self-definition as a biological system during interaction between our inner and outer worlds. This inherent, coordinated ‘sense-of-self’ is always more than our conscious self-image, and this often creates tension and anxiety when our conscious ego demands that we act in ways foreign to our essential identity. Comprehensive self or comprehensive identity is often used interchangeably with coherent self or coherent identity, as the structural content of both is the same. However, it is important to understand that while the comprehensive self is also the sum total of the elements of our conscious and unconscious identity, (similar to the coherent identity) it is possible for these elements to be incoherent and fragmented. This often happens during severe disease, trauma and psychosis. In other words ordinary anxiety and stress may result when we consciously act against the essence of our coherent identity. However, when we have lost the coherence between different aspects of our self-definition due to severe fragmentation or division amongst the elements of our total identity, it always leads to critical bodily and mental diseases.
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