If I were to introspect, I would find myself having three major identities- one each in the professional,family and friends sphere of my life. When I enter my professional sphere I am a focused,competitive,curt person who aims high and achieves the set aim.When I am with my family, I tend to be quieter, almost submissive and out of the limelight. When with friends, I assume an identity which seems like a cross-breed between my identity at my work sphere and family sphere with a streak of fun bonding both of them.Sometimes, I am amazed how effortlessly I slip into the identity when I enter a particular sphere, especially since I recognise the identities to be at the extreme ends of the spectrum.

The interesting and confusing thing here is I feel perfectly comfortable as long as these 3 spheres, the 3 identities are distinct.The minute they merge or overlap, it leads to what I understand to be identity crisis.By instinct, one of the 3 prominent identities rises to the occasion and more often than not, I feel uncomfortable. Recently, what I have been trying to do, with great difficulty, is dissolve the 3 identities into one. I haven't seen any progress yet. I'm conditioned into adopting a particular identity which suits the dominant sphere. If I may be excused, I wish to generalise my situation to be one which most of us experience.That being the case, I wish to raise a few questions-

1. If we are the same person with different identities, would I be right in saying that an "identity" is in fact a layer of our "self"?

2. If we bring in the concept of "self" can we say that the "self" is what remains when all our identities are stripped off? As in the essential characteristics(virtues such as honesty,loyalty etc) which are constant no matter which identity we assume?

3.If each identity is formed according to the situation,the people around us, could we say that the identity we have is one, not created by us but given to us by the people and the situation?

The root of these questions, I identify, stems from the fact that a person has multiple identities.

Thus, the final question- DO we face the issue of identity crisis or that of multiplicity of identities?