Erik Erikson

Personality PsychologyPersonality Psychology

HistoryHistory

Erik Erikson Born: Frankfurt, Germany, on June 15, 1902. Died May 12, 1994 in Harwich, MA Family: His biological father was an unnamed

Danish man who abandoned Erik's mother before he was born. His mother, Karla Abrahamsen, was a young Jewish woman who raised him alone for the first three years of his life. She then married Dr. Theodor Homberger, who was Erik's pediatrician, and moved to Karlsruhe in southern Germany.

He married Joan Serson, a Canadian dance teacher and had three children.

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HistoryHistory

Career He studied art and a variety of languages during his school years,

rather than science courses such as biology and chemistry. He did not prefer the atmosphere that formal schooling produced, so instead of going to college he traveled around Europe, keeping a diary of his experiences. After a year of doing this, he returned to Germany and enrolled in art school.

Erikson started off being an art teacher and earned Montessori education certificate. He taught children of Americans who had come to Vienna for Freudian training. He was then admitted into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. He graduated from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute in 1933. Also that year, he settled in Boston and began work in private practice and at Harvard. It was at this time in his life that he was psychoanalyzed by Anna Freud herself.

Concepts

Epigenetic Principle Psychosocial Crises Timing Virtues Maladaptations/Malignancies

Stage (age)Psychosocial crisis

Significant relations

Psychosocial modalities

Psychosocial virtues

Maladaptations & malignancies

I (0-1) -- infant

trust vs mistrust motherto get, to give in return

hope, faithsensory distortion -- withdrawal

II (2-3) -- toddler

autonomy vs shame and doubt

parentsto hold on, to let go

will, determination

impulsivity -- compulsion

III (3-6) -- preschooler

initiative vs guilt

familyto go after, to play

purpose, courage

ruthlessness -- inhibition

IV (7-12 or so) -- school-age child

industry vs inferiority

neighborhood and school

to complete, to make things together

competencenarrow virtuosity -- inertia

V (12-18 or so) --

adolescence

ego-identity vs role-confusion

peer groups, role models

to be oneself, to share oneself

fidelity, loyalty

fanaticism -- repudiation

VI (the 20’s) -- young adult

intimacy vs isolation

partners, friends

to lose and find oneself in a another

lovepromiscuity -- exclusivity

VII (late 20’s to 50’s) -- middle adult

generativity vs self-absorption

household, workmates

to make be, to take care of

careoverextension -- rejectivity

VIII (50’s and beyond) -- old adult

integrity vs despair

mankind or “my kind”

to be, through having been, to face not being

wisdompresumption -- despair