Experiencing biological change is an essential and natural part of a person’s life cycle. Our body grows to adapt to these changes to enable us to function normally. However, experiencing environmental changes is something that not all individuals can adjust to. Some of us may welcome changes in their lifestyle or society while others may become frustrated and develop various personality disorders or an “identity crisis”. According to Erik Erikson, most famous developmental psychologist, “identity crisis” is the failure to achieve ego identity during adolescence. During this stage, adolescents are confronted with physical growth, sexual maturity, and incorporating ideas of themselves and about what others think of them. The crisis develops when they are unable to figure out their personality and “who they are”. In psychology, however, the term is also used in broader context and is defined as a period of uncertainty and confusion in a person’s life when he experiences a societal change. This societal change may be cultural change, a change in expected role or behaviour or changes in aims and goals in an individual’s life. If a person perceives these changes negatively or is not able to conform to them; then he may develop a sense of not belonging to that place. He may feel isolated and inferior and this can adversely affect his mental growth and personality development.

“When established identities become outworn or unfinished ones threaten to remain incomplete, special crises compel men to wage holy wars, by the cruellest means, against those who seem to question or threaten their unsafe ideological bases.”
–Erik Erikson – 1956