“This may just be me, but I feel like everyone's dream is to live as an American high school student. There are so many teen films set in America that you live vicariously through them, anyway.” – Katherine Langford 

Vicarious identity occurs when people actually appropriate others' stories as their own, as if they happened to them, integrating them as part of their own identity.  Psychologists who are exposed to clients with trauma may be subject to vicarious trauma, which is a term used to describe a range of harmful symptoms that develop in response to exposure to other people's trauma.

Vicarious trauma can occur through reading, watching, or listening to sensitive and complex material.  Presumably, vicarious identity may be experienced in either a negative or a positive direction depending on one’s sense of ontological security.

Ontological Security

Ontological security is a stable mental state derived from a sense of continuity in regard to the events in one's life (1).  These events are perceived to give meaning to their lives, which leads to experiencing positive and stable emotions, and avoiding chaos and anxiety.   

Any event that is not consistent with the meaning and safety of an individual's life will threaten that individual's ontological security. Ontological security provides a positive view of oneself, the world, and the future.

Negative Vicarious Identity

Vicarious trauma from clients sharing their trauma is one example of a negative vicarious identity.  Are there other examples?  Life experiences that threaten one’s feelings of security appear to be on the rise.  Currently, climate change, AI, terrorism, political unrest, wars, and of course death are examples of life events that promote feelings of chaos and anxiety.  When these events create instability in individuals, people may react in uncharacteristic ways.  These individuals may take on a vicarious identity to cope with their insecurities (2).  These identities sometimes lead to impulsive behaviours that are inappropriate, dangerous, or even criminal. 

Many a young disturbed young male has taken up weapons as a vigilante to single-handedly right the world of the chaos or injustice they perceive.  The military approach of a civilian high school student to act with violence as a solution to their anxiety is not uncommon anymore.  Witness more than one mass-shooting on average happening every day in the United States over the last few years.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., also known as the Great Imposter, impersonated a civil engineer, a sheriff’s deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, a naval surgeon, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher.  Demara integrated others’ careers as his own, a form of vicarious identity.  These impersonations were inappropriate, dangerous, and criminal.  He eventually served six months in prison.  

“Human identity is the most fragile thing that we have, and it's often only found in moments of truth.” - Alan Rudolph

 Is there a Positive Vicarious Identity?

What would qualify as a positive vicarious identity?  Identifying vicariously with anything that would promote a sense of security, has perceived meaning, or stabilizes emotions would be an example of a positive. 

Identity is positive when it displays helpful qualities and authentic traits. Integrity, honesty, generosity and humanity are central to a positive identity.

In our work life, we may emulate a positive vicarious identity when we follow the teachings of a mentor.  A trainee nurse, a student teacher, a noviciate or trainee monk, a novice or trainee nun, an apprentice carpenter, plumber, brick layer, etc. are all examples of at least a temporary positive vicarious identity that promotes career, a sense of security, and perceived meaning.

The key word here is temporary.  Each trainee needs to become their own person within their chosen profession.  The mentor is only the catalyst to the development of the trainee.  During the insecure learning phase of any profession, this vicarious identity may be acceptable.  Once mastery is achieved, one’s unique identity needs to be owned in its entirety.                                                

“I've suffered from an identity crisis my entire life. It's why I went into acting.” - Matthew Rhys

Acting

Acting in plays or cinema is a justifiable and positive vicarious identity.  The actor is playing a role.  Unfortunately, many of the vicarious identities we encounter in life are not actors. Instead, they are wearing the mask of someone or something else.  What makes the mask a mask is the absence of the authentic self. 

Social media has been the playground for many of these inauthentic individuals.  The substitution of fake identities, the scams, and the lies are a pervasive part of the growing concern for misinformation. 

AI only makes the possibility of misinformation becoming even more likely.  Machines will be perpetrating a vicarious human identity that does not exist.  The AI machine will not just be a sophisticated technological invention doing human tasks at light speed, it will actually be replacing human beings in a multitude of environments. 

The danger to our ontological security here would mainly be that we will not know the difference between a human and a machine.  In a world with increasing amounts of ambiguity, will this really be progress?  Are we headed for more misinformation, more ambiguity, more vicarious identity, and less ontological security?                      

References

^{1-Tony Bilton et al., (1996).  Introductory Sociology, 3rd edition. London, Macmillan, p. 665}

^{2-Browning, C.S., Joenniemi, P., Steele, B.J. (2021).  Vicarious Identity; An Overview.  Oxford Academic, February 2021, pages 7-42.}