Before they can reconstruct their identity from ‘being an ordinary, unknown person’ to ‘a successful, famous person’, they have to pass through the liminal space between these two identity states.ĭuring their time in the liminal space, their previous identity will try to bring them back while their new identity pushes them forward. Take another example of a person who becomes an overnight success by, say, winning the grand prize in a contest. The mind prefers structure, certainty, order, and stability. Usually, our minds do not let us switch easily between identities, states, concepts and beliefs. This too, helps them fully adopt the new identity of being single.Īs you can tell from these examples, liminal space is not a pleasant space to be in. Or they burn all their bridges and fully remove their exes from their lives with proper closure. This confusion and uncertainty brought on by liminality force some into rebound relationships to relieve the confusion, restore identity, and re-establish order. “Did the divorce really happen? I can’t shake the feeling of still being married.” This creates identity and state confusion. Before the person can fully go back to being single, they go through this transitory space where they still feel attached to their exes while trying to move on. Similarly, when breakups happen, people have to go back to ‘being single’ from the state of ‘being in a relationship’.īut it takes time for people to switch states.

When divorce happens, they’re forced to go back to being single. Typically, people are single and then enter a new life-stage: marriage. Marriage is an important life stage for many people. Major life events can also throw unsuspecting people into liminal spaces. On the other hand, teenage crisis stems from the identity confusion caused by not fitting in the definitions of childhood and adulthood. Mid-life crisis likely stems from the identity confusion caused by not fitting in the categories of adulthood and old age. Similarly, people in their middle age are caught in the liminal space between adulthood and old age. Adolescents can’t call themselves children, nor can they call themselves adults. Getting caught in psychological liminal spaces has key consequences. Mentally and temporally too, they’re caught between two life stages- childhood and adulthood. When you look at an adolescent, you can tell that, physically, they’re in between being a child and being an adult. Psychological liminal spacesīoundaries not only exist in the physical world but also in the mental world. It both feels and doesn’t feel like a destination. The place loses its original purpose and liminality. The same thing happens when your flight or train is delayed, and you’re forced to stay. Then the place loses its liminality and becomes a destination. Unless, of course, you own a shop or something at an airport. We’re not supposed to stay in these places for too long. So are hallways, stairs, and elevators.Īll of these places are transitory places. Streets, roads, airports, train and bus stations connecting two destinations are liminal spaces. For instance, corridors connecting two rooms are liminal spaces. Those boundaries were the liminal spaces between the tiles.Īny physical place that serves as a connecting place between two places is a liminal space. Physical liminal spacesĪlmost all of us, when we were kids, tried to walk on the bathroom or street tiles so as not to touch the boundary of those tiles. Liminal spaces can be physical, psychological, temporal, cultural, conceptual, political, or a combination of these. When adolescents in primitive cultures go through the rites of passage marking the transition from childhood to adulthood, they can finally call themselves adults. Adolescence, thus, is a liminal space between two points in time or two life stages. An adolescent is neither a child nor an adult. 1įor instance, transitioning from childhood to adulthood or from being unmarried to being married are accompanied by elaborate rites of passage in such cultures.Īdolescence is a liminal space between childhood and adulthood. In some primitive cultures, there are rites of passage to mark the transition of people from one state to another. The word “limen” means “threshold” in Latin. Liminal spaces have liminality, a concept borrowed from social anthropology. At the same time, you’re both here and there.

When you’re in a liminal space, you’re neither here nor there, neither this nor that. It’s the middle ground between two grounds, the mid-structure between two structures. A liminal space is a boundary between two points in time, space, or both. A liminal space is a space between spaces.