“Foreclosed identity is characterized by the presence of commitment and the absence of exploration. Although the adolescent is satisfied with his/her sense of identity, it is drawn from authority figures and the youth tend to be rigid and conformist (Subrahmanyam & Šmahel, 2011, p. 60).”
This quote reminds me of many cases both of celebrities and people in my life. The first person that might have a foreclosed identity came to my mind is Prince of Wales, Charles. I have no idea about his adolescence experience, but at least he knew what his ultimate identity and his duties should be in very early age. Therefore, he might not have enough motivations to explore other identities when he was young.
Similarly, another example I could find is Victor Li, the oldest son of Sir Ka-shing Li, Hong Kong business magnate, one of the richest people in Asia. According to our Chinese culture, the oldest son will most likely inherit the family business, so they will be trained strictly, under more pressure and be more obedient to their parents. Victor Li is one of those praiseworthy successors. Even though with a big business empire, he has rarely had any negative news, no matter in his school years, executive experience or in his personal life. Therefore, we may assume that he also had a foreclosed identity– a good successor of his father. However, his little brother Richard Li is a complete opposite: he dropped out of college, drinks a lot, and has had affairs with many actresses or models.
The third case is about a college student I knew. Let me call her Yang. About eight years ago, Yang was a freshman of Tsinghua University, China’s MIT. Just during the first month
at Tsinghua, she committed suicide by jumping out of her dormitory’s window on third floor. Luckily, she just broke some bones, and recovered in several months. However, the reason why she did this was pretty surprising, and would affect her for much longer time. The thing was: her father is also a Tsinghua graduate, and at that time he was a high level executive in investment banking. He set very high goals and strict standards for her only daughter, Yang: becoming a Tsinghua student, obtaining a master’s degree in an American Ivy League university, working on Wall Street, and then leading a great company. Yang did almost everything her father required before attending college, yet when his father was still immersed in the joy of her admission of Tsinghua, she jumped out of the window just to let him know that “I did it but I don’t want anymore.” Maybe we could call this case as refusing foreclosed identity.
It seems like that quite a few successful people are mentally premature during childhood or adolescence. They had highly authoritative and demanding parents or figures in their life who instilled certain values into them and required them to keep on certain track and behave in certain way. Therefore, they are disciplined, strong-willed, restrained, cool-minded, perfectionist, and committed. These traits may guarantee them to succeed academically and professionally, but, at the same time, they might to some extent lack the enthusiasm to life per se. They may feel guilty when they are not doing the “right” thing. They are purposeful but not flexible. Their lives are effective but not colorful …… Perhaps it is because certain early life experiences inhibited their free self-exploration and leaded to a foreclosed identity; they may feel satisfied with his/her identity, but also feel the sense of incompleteness. So, It might be a double-edged sword. Do you want a successful but incomplete life?
Subrahmanyam, K. & Šmahel, David (2011). Constructing identity online: Identity exploration and self presentation. In Digital youth: The role of media in development (Chapter 4, pp. 59-80). New York: Springer.