We live in a world which is changing at overwhelming speed. Today, there is not one area of life which is protected from an overflowing sea of troubles. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall, even life on our planet is under threat. Yet it appears an alarm bell is now tolling at the very heart of our human-being. From the evidence of the many who question their received identity, it appears that more than ever before, a profound and unsettling anxiety is eroding our inner world.

Like a pandemic, a crisis of identity is spreading across the whole of western society as many struggle with the question, "Who am I?" With it and fuelled by a thirst to discover a deeper acceptance and love through communities of belonging, comes a bewildering and growing range of alternative and radical life-style and life-change choices.

How can we make sense of all this? And in our personal search for identity, how might we find for ourselves a convincing and durable answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Michael Lawson works as a psychotherapist, composer, writer, and broadcaster. He is the author of 16 books, many on applied psychology, and in addition to writing and presenting for BBC Radio, has directed eight broadcast human rights documentaries for Pipe Village Trust, a human-rights, film-making charity that he founded. Michael writes orchestral and chamber music and has composed scores for film and television. His music is published by Universal Edition in Vienna. He also writes on theology and is a former Archdeacon of Hampstead.