Source
What the account says
A we-identity is an identity held as a group member, at times salient, endorsed, and varying in affective salience. Self-categorization theory explains it by depersonalization: seeing oneself and others as interchangeable exemplars of an in-group prototype. A close relationship involves robust, reciprocal, non-instrumental concern that “cannot survive substitution of [its] participants” (Kolodny). In such a relationship the “we” grows by mutual individualization: each becomes tuned to the other’s particularities and so less replaceable. So there is at least one route to a we-identity that runs opposite to depersonalization.
What was actually shown
An argument, not a finding. The source cites relationship research on we-ness and couple resilience (Skerrett & Fergus 2015; Reid et al. 2006) and transactive memory in couples (Wegner et al. 1991) as fitting the account, without analysing it. The record has read none of it. The claim could fail: if we-ness in couples turned out to track self-stereotyping as a couple, depersonalization would be doing the work after all.
What this does not say
- Not that self-categorization theory is wrong about large groups. The source grants its use for nations, teams and crowds.
- Not that close others never act under a group prototype. A group of friends can act under an ad hoc prototype when facing an outsider, and shared social identities often enable close relationships.
- Not that the “we” is a supra-individual subject. The source assumes it is not.
- Not the socially extended account. That is the source’s positive sketch, by analogy to extended-mind criteria, and is not filed.
Bearing
- THEORY-1114. Limits its depersonalization clause in scope, not its context-dependence claim.
- THEORY-1112. Both deny that similarity or interchangeability is necessary for a group. That account puts collective intentionality in its place; this one puts mutual individualization.
- THEORY-126. A We-mode collective emotion between intimates, as in shared grief, would on this account be personalized rather than depersonalized. The record has not tested the two together.