Deaf Identity Revisited 165
From a psychological perspective, identity is a temporary composition of same-
ness and difference, with, on the one hand, a desire to identify with the other and
his/her narratives and to be part of a whole and, on the other hand, a desire for
independence and autonomy (Verhaeghe, 2012). Mirroring has an important role
in identity formation: When a baby looks in the mirror on the arm of his mother,
who touches the body and says “this is you,” s/he identifies with the image in the
mirror; however, the child can never fall together with the image in the mirror (like
the myth of Narcissus, who reaches for his mirror image in the water). Our unique-
ness is in the different reflections we have received and in the different choices that
we have made in the interaction of separation and identification. This also implies
a double risk in identity formation, with too much identification on the one hand
(leading to aggression toward other groups) and too much difference and individ-
ualization (leading to competition and loneliness) on the other (Verhaeghe, 2012).
The narratives of Agnes and Donna McDonald touch upon both risks.
Deaf identities have been reflections in the mirror of deaf cultural stories, such as
the myth of Epée’s journey. This can be seen in The Cry of the Gull, the autobiogra-
phy of Emmanuelle Laborit, a young deaf woman who was born in 1971 and was a
teenager in Paris in the 1980s during the awakening of the French deaf community.
In the wake of this emergent minority consciousness in the beginning of the 1990s,
when she was 20 years old, Laborit performed the role of Sarah in the French stage
version of Children of a Lesser God by Mark Medoff.
The film was released in 1986, starring 19-year-old Marlee Matlin, and while Mat-
lin won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1987, Laborit received the Molière Award. Her
autobiography illuminates the blurring of her own life story and those of Sarah/
Marlee, including falling in love with her co-star. She explores the many Sarahs in
the story: “Deaf Sarah, who refuses to speak. Violent, oppressed Sarah. Sensitive
Sarah, in love” (p. 132). Finally, she shares the experience of becoming a deaf her-
oine: “Mother was proud of me: ‘Did you know I wanted to name you Sarah when
you were born?’... Was it a sign?” (Laborit, 1998, p. 136).
Her autobiography provides insight into transformations in her identity and
transnational interaction between the French and American deaf communities
in deaf awakening. As a child, Laborit participated in an exchange program, vis-
iting Gallaudet University for one month. At Gallaudet, in the firelight of the
( transnational) deaf community, she found a sense of belonging and understand-
ing of who she was.The hope that those people in Washington gave me, their positive outlook,
led me to another discovery, a very important one about myself: I finally un-
derstood I was deaf. No one had told me that yet.
One night in Washington, I came bursting into my parents’ room, all
excited. A real bundle of energy. They couldn’t understand me because I was
signing so fast. I began again, this time more slowly, “I’m deaf!”
“I’m deaf” didn’t mean “I can’t hear.” It meant “I realize I’m deaf!”
It was a positive, decisive statement. I was admitting in my mind the fact
that I was deaf. I understood it and analyzed it because I was given a language
that allowed me to do that. I understood that my parents had their language,