We didn't use all those pseudoscientific terms then— defense mechanism and the like—so the process of self-awareness, painful at times, emerged in a liberating atmosphere. Erikson met a Canadian dance instructor named Joan Serson who was also teaching at the school where he worked.
The couple married in and went on to have three children. His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist. Erikson moved to the United States in and, despite having no formal degree, was offered a teaching position at Harvard Medical School.
He also changed his name from Erik Homberger to Erik H. Erikson, perhaps as a way to forge his own identity. In addition to his position at Harvard, he also had a private practice in child psychoanalysis. He published a number of books on his theories and research, including "Childhood and Society" and "The Life Cycle Completed. Erikson was a neo-Freudian psychologist who accepted many of the central tenets of Freudian theory but added his own ideas and beliefs.
His theory of psychosocial development is centered on what is known as the epigenetic principle , which proposes that all people go through a series of eight stages. At each psychosocial stage, people face a crisis that needs to be successfully resolved in order to develop the psychological quality central to each stage. The eight stages of Erikson's psychosocial theory are something that every psychology student learns about as they explore the history of personality psychology.
Much like psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. While Freud's theory of psychosexual development essentially ends at early adulthood, Erikson's theory described development through the entire lifespan from birth until death. Have you ever felt confused about your place in life or not quite sure if you really know the real you?
If so, you may be experiencing an identity crisis. According to Erikson, an identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself. He utilized the knowledge he gained about cultural, environmental, and social influences to further develop his psychoanalytic theory. He also contributed to our understanding of personality as it is developed and shaped over the course of the lifespan.
His observations of children also helped set the stage for further research. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong.
Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play. Here are some of Erikson's works for further reading:. Ever wonder what your personality type means? However, a number of his friends urged him to avoid the mistakes of his own father, and that he should not abandon the woman who was carrying his child, let alone the child itself.
So, Joan and Erik Erikson were married in She joined the faculty of the Hietzing School, and there were clearly some happy times:. After our marriage we lived on the Kueniglberg, above the school. It was enriching for us all to share this experience.
In , however, the Hietzing School closed, in part because some of the children returned to America with their families, and in part because of different opinions on how the school should be run between Mrs. Burlingham and Anna Freud on one hand and Erikson and Blos on the other. Not only did it seem appropriate that Erikson move on from the school in Vienna, the climate in Europe was becoming increasingly hostile as the Nazis took over Germany and the surrounding areas including Austria.
Erikson was concerned about his family they had two sons by that point. So Erikson moved his young family to America, in order to escape the dangerous conditions brewing in Europe Bloland, ; Coles, ; Friedman, Considering his illustrious credentials, having been an acquaintance of Sigmund Freud and trained by Anna Freud, Erikson was welcomed into the American psychoanalytic community, despite never having graduated from college let alone medical school.
The Eriksons never really settled anywhere, in many ways his career was one of unending research and clinical experience. In the summer of , the year that his daughter was born, Erikson joined anthropologist Scudder Mekeel on a trip to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to study the children of the Sioux Indians. He was able to make extensive observations of mother-child interactions, and to talk with employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In the Eriksons moved to California. Erikson practiced psychoanalysis in San Francisco, taught at the University of California, and continued his studies on Native Americans by visiting the Yurok tribe in Northern California. During this time he consolidated his major interests into his most significant book, Childhood and Society Erikson, , which includes sections on the influence of social life, culture based on his Native American studies , the use of toys and playing when studying children, the evolution of identity, and the eight stages of development.
Erikson also became an American citizen Coles, ; Friedman, In , however, a disturbing and tragic event befell the Eriksons, one that they kept secret as much as possible.
They had a fourth child, named Neil. When she went to deliver the child, Joan Erikson had been heavily sedated, because of a surgical procedure that had been planned ahead of time as a result of an earlier pregnancy. The case was considered severe, and he was told it was unlikely that the child would live more than a year or two. The medical staff recommended having the child institutionalized. Erikson was not used to making such decisions, it was Joan who ran the household and supported him while he worked.
He called a close friend, Margaret Mead. She assured him that the medical staff was right. Another friend, Joseph Wheelwright a respected Jungian analyst agreed. Erikson signed the necessary papers, and Neil Erikson was transferred before his mother ever woke up. The decision tormented both of them. One of the most influential psychoanalysts of the 20th century, Erik Erikson was born in in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.
After completing high school, he moved to Florence to pursue his interest in art, and in became an art teacher at a psychoanalytically enlightened school for children started by Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud in Vienna.
In these works, Erikson applied clinical analysis to develop an understanding of the ways that leaders faced with untenable situations rose above them to forge new identities for themselves and other citizens. In education and psychology, Erikson is best known for his eight-stage model of the human life cycle, developed with the assistance of his wife, Joan. This model identifies particular goals, challenges, and concerns at each stage of life.
They are the following: 1 Basic Trust versus Basic Mistrust infancy ; 2 Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt early childhood ; 3 Initiative versus Guilt play age ; 4 Industry versus Inferiority school age ; 5 Identity versus Role Confusion adolescence ; 6 Intimacy versus Isolation young adulthood ; 7 Generativity versus Stagnation adulthood ; 8 Ego Identity versus Despair later adulthood.
Further, the stages are interdependent in that unresolved conflicts at one stage influence development at later stages, as in the development of either a loving trusting relationship with a caregiver in infancy or mistrust of others. Unlike Freud, who focused on early childhood, Erikson emphasized adolescence and adulthood. Erikson introduced the term identity and identity crisis to explain the psychological and social complexities faced by young people in attempting to find their place in a specific town, nation, and time.
Adolescent development, in other words, is a complex answer to the question, "Who am I? This focus reflects Erikson's own youthful wanderings before finding his place as a teacher, analyst, and writer. In the s Erikson focused on the seventh or "generative" stage of adulthood.
In this stage, adults are obligated to care for the next generation, either one's own children or a broader group, through personal deeds and words. In the case of Gandhi, his contribution to the next generation was his militant nonviolence as a means to address social injustice. In addition Erikson described the final stage, late adulthood, as an active period that involves acceptance of self and the development of wisdom.
A third focus in Erikson's writing, ethical and moral responsibility, is reflected most prominently in Insight and Responsibility In this work, he included a set of eight virtues that correspond with his eight life stages hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom.
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