Erik Erikson

Erik Homburger Erikson (June 15, 1902 - May 12, 1994) was a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory of psychosocial development of human beings, and for coining the phrase "identity crisis."

Biography

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902. His biological father was a Danish man who abandoned Erik's mother, Karla Abrahamsen, a young Jewish woman. She married Erik's pediatrician, Dr. Theodor Homberger, when Erik was three years old. They then moved to Karlsruhe in southern Germany.

Erikson grew up as an outsider, and his personal struggle to develop a sense of identity fueled his interest in psychosocial development. As a child he was Erik Homberger, a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy raised in a Jewish family and community. His Nordic appearance caused him to be teased by his Jewish peers; at grammar school, he was teased for being Jewish. As a young man, he traveled throughout Europe as a wandering artist. While in Vienna, he was trained in psychoanalysis by Anna Freud, receiving a certificate from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. During that time he met and married Joan Serson, with whom he had three children.

Following the Nazi's rise to power, they moved to the United States where he changed his name to Erik Homberger Erikson. Erikson taught at major universities including Harvard, Yale, and the University of California at Berkely, without formal academic qualifications. During this time he carried out studies of the Lakota and the Yurok native American tribes. Erikson published the results of these studies in 1950 in Childhood and Society, the first account of his theory of psychosocial development. Refusing to sign the "loyalty oath" required of all professors in the McCarthy era, Erikson returned to Massachussets to work in a clinic, and later rejoined the faculty at Harvard.

Erikson analysed the life of Luther (1958), and Gandhi (1969) for which he won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, combining his interest in historical figures and the influence of culture on personality. In 1970 he retired from teaching. He remained professor emeritus at Harvard, and continued to write and carry out research with his wife, until his death in 1994.

Erikson's view of identity

Erikson's life experience was clearly one of being the outsider, different from his peers, both during his childhood and his academic life. This search for his personal identity led him to postulate the importance of personal identity in psychological growth. He saw the desire to achieve an integrated identity as a positive force for healthy pschological development; failure, however, could lead to mental illness.

Erikson was trained in psychoanalysis, accepting the basic tenets of Freud's theory. However, unlike the Freudian model in which personality is shaped by the age of five, Erikson believed that we continue to develop our personality, or identity, through adolescence and even throughout our adult lives.

His model of psychosocial development consists of eight stages, each characterized by a psychological "crisis." Erikson firmly believed that these stages are biologically determined, occuring in a fixed order, each with an optimal time frame. In other words, it is not advisable to push children to achieve adult personalities at an early, nor to keep them protected from their natural course of development into maturity.

The first four crises are encountered in childhood, and are based on Freud's stages, and the second set of four crises are encountered during adulthood:

1. Trust vs. Mistrust (between birth and one year)
2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (ages two to three)
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (ages four to five)
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (ages six to puberty)
5. Identity vs. Identity Confusion (adolescence)
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
8. Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)

The outcome of each crisis is either favorable, in which case the person achieves a certain virtue or strenght, or unsuccsessful, in which case the person develops a maladaptive character.

Influence

Erikson was a Freudian, accepting both Sigmund and Anna Freud's basic theory and concepts. However, he was also an anthropologist, and so was greatly concerned with the impact of society and culture on human development. As a result, his work has been well received by non-Freudians and Freudians alike.

His major departure from Freud, the expansion of developmental stages beyond childhood to cover the entire lifespan, is one reason his work has been influential among professional clinical psychologists and counselors. The fact that he was an excellent writer contributed to popular interest in his ideas.

Works

Major works

• Erikson, Erik Childhood and Society New York, NY: Norton. (1950)
• Erikson, Erik Young Man Luther New York, NY: Norton. (1958)
• Erikson, Erik Insight and Responsibility New York, NY: Norton. (1964)
• Erikson, Erik Identity: Youth and Crisis New York, NY: Norton. (1968)
• Erikson, Erik Gandhi's Truth New York, NY: Norton (1969)
• Erikson, Erik and J.M. Erikson The Life Cycle Completed (1987)

Collections

• Erik Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (1959)
• S.P. Schlien (Ed) A Way of Looking at Things: Selected Papers 1930-1980 (1995)
• Robert Coles (Ed) The Erik Erikson Reader (2001)

Related works

• Lawrence J. Freidman and Robert Coles Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik H. Erikson (1999)
• Kit Welchman Erik Erikson, His Life, Work, and Significance (2000)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Boeree, C. George. Erik Erikson http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/erikson.html (1997)
• Koch, Sigmund & David E. Leary (eds). A Century of Psychology as Science Washington, DC: American Psychological Association (1992)

Credits

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Comments

This is an unfinished work in progress.—Jennifer Tanabe 16:07, 20 Sep 2005 (CDT)