The Theory of Identification

Building Communities through an Important Rhetorical Practice

*This blog was made for the intended audience of college students, specifically those who are English/Writing Majors as it will serve as a platform for which to understand the Burkean idea of Rhetoric better*

Consubstantiality(or Identification)

Consubstantiality (or Identification) can be defined by the following example:
“A is not identical with his colleague, B. But insofar as their interests are joined, A is identified with B. Or he may identify himself with B even when their interests are not joined, if he assumes that they are, or is persuaded to believe so.” Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Try to picture this phrase as this for example, we as people tend to identify with those that have our same interests or similar thinking patterns since it helps us connect better with one another thus that makes us “substantially one” with someone other than ourselves. The term “Identification” coming from the root word “IDENTIFY” is the Burkean rhetorical idea of persuasion, where one individual identifies with another group of individuals essentially on the basis of property, autonomy and cunningness.

“You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his” ~ Kenneth Burke

Kenneth Burke (1969). “A Rhetoric of Motives”, p.55, Univ of California Press

Three States of Identification

1. The process of naming something (or someone) according to specific properties

2. The process of associating with and disassociating from others

3. The product or end result of identifying

Sources of Identification

• Materialistic Identification

• Idealistic Identification

• Formal Identification

• Identification through Mystification

Materialistic Identification

This is defined as being able to identify oneself through properties, things that are capable of being touched. Now this can mean all sorts of things but for now I want to be able to give you guys a visible explanation as to what that means. You can envision a property as either a watch, a car, or even a suit. A person can identify with another through this way because they both may value possessions as part of their identity.

Idealistic Identification

Through beliefs, interests, ideas, attitudes, feelings, values, experience and perception etc,. This helps create a level of connection between two people since they share the same beliefs and thus share the same religious symbol.

Formal Identification

This is based on people who are able to identify with others based on form, arrangement, or organization in which both parties arise from. For example two co-workers who work for the same department may identify with each other since they both work in the same floor and fulfill the same job duties.

Identification through Mystification

This refers to people who identify with one another based on their level of hierarchy for example low class, middle class, and upper class level. Those at the top hierarchy tend to form a deeper connection with those who are the same level as them and same goes to those who are at the lower hierarchy, they tend to form connections easier with those who are closer to them in societal class.

How did Identification help broaden the traditional view of rhetoric as persuasion?

I know a lot of you may read this blog post and ask yourself “what exactly does the role of identification play in rhetoric?” Well, I will tell you that the term Identification is not merely just a word. This term has helped build communities and has enforce cooperation between groups of people around the world. It has helped create a sense of “equality” amongst various groups of people with differing perspectives, interests and values.

Come to think of it, the idea of rhetoric has changed drastically with the creation of the theory of identification. Rhetorician Kenneth Burke believed that one could never escape the “human need” for identification, he believed that humans will always have that “necessity” to identify with others because we all need each other socially and I’ am in agreeance with him. As we have gone through this semester in this class, I am sure you have all noticed how we have identified with each other as students and english majors, this is an example of this same theory. If you think about it we may not know each other at all in person but we can “identify” with each other because we are all in this rhetorical theory course and we are all online students and that’s what make us all equal and has helped us create a community, which is the basis of this theory.

The Application and the Limitation of the Theory of Identification

How can we apply this theory to our lives and how may it limit us in society? Below, you all may read some points I have considered can help you all spark an interesting thought process..

• this theory can help provide us an extra tool to examine and explain certain events or processes of communication
• it can help us enforce our rhetorical practices (consider thinking that identification is the beginning of rhetoric, in order for an audience to understand and be interested by what the speaker is talking about, the speaker must have already formed a connection with the audience through words, appearance etc., everything else will fall into place)
• it can also help us learn more about ourselves, as a single person who is part of a community
• it may limit us in the sense that some people may not want to identify or be open to identify with other groups of people who are not like them, creating a division in society
• may limit our chances to form bonds with other types of people with different interests thus creating alienation amongst certain types of people
• can narrow down our perspectives in being open to inclusion, thus refusing to accept people who are not like us on the basis of different ideas and opinions

I encourage you all to leave some comments or questions you guys may have about this theory, I want to be able to read them and answer you all! Don’t forget that connection helps create unity!