Erik_Erikson

Erik Erikson is famous psychoanalyst and ego psychologist in the early 20th Century whose work helped create interest and research in human development throughout he lifespan. He is best known for his famous theory of psychosocial development and the concept of the identity crisis. His theories continue to remain influential today and contributed to our understanding of personality development throughout life. Erik Homburger Erikson was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. It has been thought that Erik Erikson's interest in his field of psychology may be linked back to what he went through as a child, such as being teased by other kids in school, his birth being a result of his mother's extramarital affair, and his father abandoning him and his mother. He was teased at school for being Nordic - tall, blonde, and blue-eyed and later was teased for being Jewish. This may have influenced his development of identity crisis, because may have once rejected his real identity and wanted to take on another to fit in. Erikson's career was a successful and full filled one. He traveled through Europe and studied psychoanalysis under Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud's daughter) and earned a certificate from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. He then moved to the United States and taught a lot. Among many teaching positions he had, he was first offered and took a teaching position at Harvard Medical School and also had a private practice in child psychoanalysis on the side. He published a number of books, but was most recognized for his book Gandhi’s Truth, which won his a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award (Wikipedia). Erikson had many contributions to psychology. Erikson's greatest achievement was his eight stages of psychosocial development, which were three more that he discovered than Sigmund Freud did. A good quote and example of this is made by Erik Erikson, "It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of a man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him" (Developmental Stages). His theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology and consisted of the belief that personality develops in eight stages and conveys the impact of experience in social settings across the entire lifespan of a human being. In every stage, Erikson believed that people experience a conflict that serves as a turning point in development, either good or bad. Each conflict must be resolved. These conflicts, which are opposites of each other, such as trust and mistrust that is developed in the first stage of life, are centered on either developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality (Wagner). For example, in the first stage, which is from birth to eighteen months, a baby is completely dependent on the parent and development of trust is based on how dependable the parent is. If the mother makes the baby feel safe and secure, the baby will trust her and therefore develop trust. If the mother does not make the baby feel safe and secure, the bay will then develop mistrust and grow up not trusting people in the world. These eight stages continue from birth to death and explain how personalities come to life. Erikson was also famous for coining the term "identity crisis" and believed that it was one of the most important conflicts people face in human development throughout life and is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at one's self (Identity Crisis). The time that this crisis most commonly occurs is in the teenage years. Teenagers are torn between feelings of identity versus role confusion. This happens because teenagers are at a stage where they are neither a child nor an adult and seeing that life is more complex than they thought it was and they attempt to find their "meaning in life". At this stage they are about to exit high school and go on to college. They are trying to find out how they are going to spend the rest of their life within a career choice, or maybe even finding a soul mate. They try to find out who they really are and a lot of teens struggle with this concept. Erik Erikson was an influential and pioneering psychologist, psychoanalyst, and author whose theory of the eight psychosocial stages of development profoundly shaped the field of child development. After his retirement from Harvard in 1970, Erikson continued writing, doing research, and occasionally lecturing. But in 1980 serious health problems (including prostate cancer) forced him into full retirement. He died in 1994 at the age of 91, passing peacefully in his sleep.