Status: Working
Type: Emerging / descriptive term
One-sentence definition
Identity paralysis: A state in which disruption to an established sense of self makes it difficult to imagine, choose, or begin inhabiting a next identity.
Why the term is useful
It names a problem beneath some stalled transitions: the obstacle is not merely deciding what to do next, but losing the self-story from which action previously made sense.
Origin / coined by
The phrase is in circulation rather than attributable here to a single established psychological theory. Madeline Toubiana, Trish Ruebottom, and Luciana Turchick Hakak use “identity paralysis” for the difficulty that can follow major—especially involuntary—change that upends one’s sense of self.[1]
Career-transition research more broadly describes identity dynamics, liminality, identity work, and lingering identities during discontinuous role changes.[2]
Example
After a layoff, a longtime executive can list possible jobs but cannot pursue any of them: each option feels false because “executive” had become the organizing answer to who they were.
- Identity work
- Liminality
- Lingering identities
- Career transition
Sources and notes
This is a useful descriptive phrase, not presented here as a clinical diagnosis or a settled technical construct. Its Words at Work value may lie in connecting a vivid name to the better-established research on identity transitions.
Working concept · evolving in public