History Main / LossofIdentity

** The upcoming ''TabletopGame/DeviantTheRenegades'' doesn't make it part of the KarmaMeter... because it's a default for the characters. Deviants have been so broken by being [[PlayingWithSyringes remade]] that they can only really define themselves by external principles or relationships; the "they" has been carved out.

* This was a major plot revelation in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII'' when we discover that [[spoiler:Cloud Strife, due to psychological trauma and denial, had altered his own memories and adopted the persona of his dead friend Zack Fair, losing his own identity in the process.]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': Explicitly the fate that awaits any l'Cie who fails to complete the Focus given to them by the Fal'Cie. They slowly degenerate into mindless Cie'th, monstrous and aggressive creatures with tainted crystals jutting out of their bodies. Given the Fal'Cie tend to give VERY vague instructions when it comes to what they want done, this fate is far more common than success (and even what you get if you succeed is not that great).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' animated series, Fixit tries to "repair" Cyborg by taking away all that made him human and replacing it with fully mechanical parts and a mechanical brain. Cyborg is justifiably freaked out, because, without his humanity, he'd be just an emotionless machine with his memories. Eventually, it is Cyborg's humanity that causes Fixit to remember [[WasOnceAMan what ''he'' lost]].

See also QuestForIdentity where an identity loss is the starting premise of the story. Can lead to or be part of an IdentityBreakdown. GrandTheftMe can happen if said identity was stolen. Living in a society where you can't have a real identity is IndividualityIsIllegal. See also . If this is a character's backstory, it might be a PreInsanityReveal.

* The point of most {{Assimilation Plot}}s - as seen on ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' and ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' among others - is to relieve humanity of the burden of isolation that comes with individual identities.

* A [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation darker take]] of [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ranma's]] situation could lead to this. Additionally, in an anime-exclusive episode, Ranma banged his head hard after being swatted into the Koi Pond and was taken over by an [[IdentityAmnesia alternate personality]] that thought it truly was a girl, with almost insultingly stereotypical attitudes and tastes, in a situation that was one part this to one part LaserGuidedAmnesia. FridgeLogic on [[AndIMustScream what might be going on with Ranma's real personality]] while the "girly Ranma" is in control can be terrifying if you're a fan of Ranma...

Not to be confused with an AssimilationPlot, in which one's identity is subsumed into a HiveMind. Neither is it the same as EmptyShell, in which any ability to function as an individual is lacking. Compare SplitPersonalityMerge, where two personalities become one, and MentalFusion, where separate minds briefly become one. See also AmnesiacLover, who doesn't know how to love back after becoming an amnesiac. GrandTheftMe can happen if said identity was stolen. Living in a society where you can't have a real identity is IndividualityIsIllegal. See also QuestForIdentity. Compare LostInCharacter, where an actor becomes lost in a role, and SecretIdentityIdentity in which it's possible for a character to completely lose their base identity in favor of their outward persona. If this is a character's backstory, it might be a PreInsanityReveal.

Not to be confused with an AssimilationPlot, in which one's identity is subsumed into a HiveMind. Neither is it the same as EmptyShell, in which any ability to function as an individual is lacking. Compare SplitPersonalityMerge, where two personalities become one, and MentalFusion, where separate minds briefly become one. See also AmnesiacLover, who doesn't know how to love back after becoming an amnesiac. GrandTheftMe can happen if said identity was stolen. Living in a society where you can't have a real identity is IndividualityIsIllegal. See also QuestForIdentity. Compare LostInCharacter, where an actor becomes lost in a role. If this is a character's backstory, it might be a PreInsanityReveal.

* In the sci-fi film ''Eleven'', by Makodap, the main character Pete Baxter attempts to leave a future hotel without paying his bill. Before he can leave, a woman called Miss Stevens gives him a gift of scotch, upon drinking it and phoning for a call girl, Pete is [[PainfulTransformation transformed]] into the woman he ordered, and slowly starts to lose his mind, becoming her mentally.

* This is the crux for much of the drama in ''Regarding Henry'', starring Creator/HarrisonFord. In it, the title character [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain survives a gunshot wound to the head]], only for the resulting pinched artery to affect his memory. Cue the rest of the movie depicting him [[QuestForIdentity coming to terms]] with [[LossOfIdentity not remembering anything]] about [[MissingTime his life before]] the [[TraumaInducedAmnesia shot]].

* In ''[[FanFic/TheRivalPrefectsTrilogy The New Prefect]]'', [[spoiler:Thomas has spent the past century as a statue and has difficulty remembering his life as a human]].

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': At the beginning of the show, the crew agree that they are not defined by their past actions as [[PsychoForHire ruthless mercenaries]], as they don't remember any of them. They decide to instead use their skills and equipment for what feels right to them as they are now without those memories, [[ThatManIsDead declining to even use their original names]] except when necessary, instead [[YouAreNumberSix going by One through Six]] in the order they awakened from stasis with amnesia. Although they all retain certain personality traits. For example, Two is the ''de facto'' captain of the ship, and was captain as Portia Lin before she lost her memories as well. The one who has changed the least, as Four notes in Season Three [[spoiler:when he recovers his original memories as Ryo Ishida]], is Five (an innocent-seeming TeenGenius girl whose presence amongst these hardened criminals starts out as [[MysteriousWaif a mystery]]), the only one whose birth name is initially unknown anyway as she has no rapsheet in the files.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': At the beginning of the show, the crew agree that they are not defined by their past actions as [[PsychoForHire ruthless mercenaries]], as they don't remember any of them. They decide to instead use their skills and equipment for what feels right to them as they are now without those memories, [[ThatManIsDead declining to even use their original names]] except when necessary, instead [[YouAreNumberSix going by One through Six]] in the order they awakened from stasis with amnesia. Although they all retain certain personality traits. For example, Two is the ''de facto'' captain of the ship, and was captain as Portia Lin before she lost her memories as well. The one who has changed the least, as Four notes in Season Three [[spoiler:when he recovers his original memories as Ryo Ishida]], is Five (an innocent-seeming TeenGenius girl whose presence amongst these hardened criminals starts out as [[MysteriousWaif a mystery]]), the only one whose birth name is initially unknown anyway.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': At the beginning of the show, the crew agree that they are not defined by their past actions as ruthless mercenaries, as they don't remember any of them. They decide to instead use their skills and equipment for what feels right to them as they are now without those memories, [[ThatManIsDead declining to even use their original names]] except when necessary, instead [[YouAreNumberSix going by One through Six]] in the order they awakened from stasis with amnesia.

** The Doctor's ability to [[TheNthDoctor regenerate]] is an interesting twist on this: the many incarnations of the Doctor have entirely different looks and some personality traits that are unique to each, yet they somehow remain fundamentally the same character.

** The Doctor's ability to [[TheNthDoctor regenerate]] is an interesting twist on this: the many incarnations of the Doctor have entirely different looks and personalities, yet they somehow remain fundamentally the same character.

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': At the beginning of the show, the crew agree that they are not defined by their past actions as ruthless mercenaries, as they don't remember any of them. They decide to instead use their skills and equipment for what feels right to them as they are now without those memories, [[ThatManIsDead declining to even use their original names]] except when necessary, instead [[YouAreNumberSix going by One through Six]] in the order they awakened from stasis with amnesia.

** Death of personality has replaced capital punishment. A machine [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wipes the personality and memory]] of a murderer and [[FakeMemories replaces them with a new set]], letting them live out a life of willing hard community service with an assumed identity without them ever being the wiser. A telepath is present to perform scans before and after, so as to ascertain that the process has worked, but does not carry it out themself.

* In ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' a number of characters suffer identity crises of various types. The Eights get the worst of this: Boomer [[spoiler: almost shoots herself]] because she 'doesn't know who she is anymore'. She [[spoiler: and other 'sleeper' cylons]] have serious identity crises when they [[spoiler: discover that they've been cylons the entire time]] and that [[spoiler: all their memories are falsehoods implanted by Cavil or other cylons.]]

* A related philosophical question is called "The Ship of Theseus": if each plank in the ship is replaced when it starts to rot, and over time one-by-one every single plank is replaced, at what point (if ever) does it stop being the same ship? [[note]] This is also known as George Washington's axe (my grandpa replaced the handle, and my father replaced the head). Furthermore, there's Kerryman joke to that effect: a Kerryman boasts that he's had the same axe for the past fifty years - with the handle and head replaced, respectively, five and eight times. [[/note]] Specifically, this trope is about the [[ContemplateOurNavels philosophical problem]] of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_identity_%28philosophy%29 personal identity]]. The general notion is that people stay more or less the same throughout their lives, ''despite'' changes to their bodies (if these changes do not drastically change the way the body functions). Just ''what'' makes several iterations the same person, is central to the debate. The debate itself is notorious for the heavy use of [[AppliedPhlebotinum science-fiction]] examples, such as: