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There is a story behind this book. I will tell it from a first-person perspective, because it starts–and ends–with a promise I made to my mentor many years ago. The story helps to place the book into context, as well as to detail the sequence of “happy accidents” that occurred along the way and helped to bring the book through to completion.

The story starts back in 1995, when I was a graduate student under the tutelage of the late Dr. Richard (Dick) Dunham, Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. Dick told me one day that he had an idea that he was really excited about, and he just couldn’t wait to tell me what it was. We were riding in his car with the convertible top down on a warm spring day when he said,“Let’s write a book–a grand book about identity!” I looked at him in amazement, and then we shook hands and I promised him that we would work together to create the book.