Ricouer on identity and self

 

1) Identity as narrative / self understood through interpretation (Ricoeur)

Ricoeur’s narrative identity line maps well to your “you’re always becoming” and “identity is something you create” themes.

• “Self-knowledge is an interpretation; self interpretation, in its turn, finds in narrative… a privileged mediation; this mediation draws on history as much as it does on fiction…”
  (Paul Ricoeur, “Narrative Identity,” 1991; quoted in a secondary source that reproduces the passage) humanfactor.blog

• “The narrative constructs the identity of the character…”
  (Commonly quoted formulation attributed to Ricoeur; the text is often reproduced on quote sites, so treat this as a paraphrase unless you cite the original work/page.) brainyquote.com

2) “Continuity” of self is not “being the same thing” (Ricoeur: idem/ipse)

This supports the distinction you made between a frozen identity (“thing”) vs a changing self (“process”).

• “Ricœur… distinguishes between idem (sameness) and ipse (selfhood).”
  (This is a summary of Ricoeur’s core distinction as it’s used in scholarly discussed)