Author: Greeshma.U, Dr. Stishin K Paul

Abstract: This essay analyzes J.G. Ballard's The Concrete Island using the framework of psychogeography and argues that the book demonstrates the intimate relationship between development of identity and urban geographical context. Robert Maitland is placed on an abandoned freeway island in the story, which transforms this neglected part of the city into a psychological landscape that actively alters his awareness. Maitland's entrapment reveals the hidden emotional geographies of the contemporary metropolis by revealing underlying currents of violence, neglect, alienation, and emotional detachment embedded in contemporary urban planning. Rather than being a passive environment, the island is a dynamic force that destroys Maitland's social identity and reconstructs him through physical isolation and environmental pressure. The book illustrates how space itself creates, disintegrates and reinvents identity through Maitland's slow adaptation to this environment. The Concrete Island is considered in this research as a significant psychogeographical work that investigates the psychological and emotional effects of modern urban existence.

Keywords: Psychogeography, Identity Formation, Urban Space, Emotional Geographies, Isolation, Modernity.

Article Info: Received: 31 Jan 2026; Received in revised form: 02 Mar 2026; Accepted: 05 Mar 2026; Available online: 09 Mar 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.112.9