Erik Erikson
Erik Homburger Erikson (June 15, 1902 - May 12, 1994) was a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory of social development of human beings, and for coining the phrase 'identity crisis'.
Biography
Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902. Erikson's 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. After moving to the United States following the Nazis rise to power, he taught at major universities including Harvard, Yale, and Berkely, without formal academic training.
Erikson's greatest innovation was to postulate not five stages of development, as Sigmund Freud had done, but eight. Erikson elaborated Freud's genital stage into adolescence plus three stages of adulthood.
Works
Major works
- Erikson, Erik (1950) Childhood and Society New York, NY: Norton.
- Young Man Luther. A Study in Psychoanalysis and History (1958)
- Gandhi's Truth: On the Origin of Militant Nonviolence (1969)
- Adulthood (edited book, 1978)
- Vital Involvement in Old Age (with J.M. Erikson and H. Kivnick, 1986)
- The Life Cycle Completed (with J.M. Erikson, 1997)
Collections
- Identity and the Life Cycle. Selected Papers (1959)
- A Way of Looking at Things: Selected Papers 1930-1980 (Editor: S.P. Schlien, 1995)
- The Erik Erikson Reader (Editor: Robert Coles, 2001)
Related works
- Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik H. Erikson (Lawrence J. Freidman and Robert Coles, 1999)
- Erik Erikson, His Life, Work, and Significance (Kit Welchman, 2000)
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Boeree, C. George (1997). Erik Erikson http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/erikson.html
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Comments
This is an unfinished work in progress.—Jennifer Tanabe 16:07, 20 Sep 2005 (CDT)
