“t Child As Father To The Man” - Erikson And Identity
Running Head: ERIK ERIK’S SON
“The Child as Father to the Man” - Erikson and Identity
Cameron Delacroix
Camosun College
Erik Erikson is known for his pioneering work in the development of identity and its stages as well as being a pioneer in the study of social psychology in the modern era. Especially important is his recognition that human development does not end with the transition to adulthood as Freud maintained, but continues into adulthood right through to old age. Because of this work on the life cycle, he is responsible for a whole branch of psychological study known as life span development. I will attempt to show that these accomplishments are because of a unique combination of all of the events and circumstance of his development, especially in his youth, and his ability to look at the world, including the world of psychology, from an outsider perspective. Although his training was as a psychoanalyst, he, much like the great pioneer cognitive theorist Jean Piaget, received no formal training in psychology. At the same time, he was able to focus on the social, historical and psychological realities of the era. It seems to me that the era in which he was born and his experiences living as a European and then an American ideally situated him to make his contributions. Throughout his whole life, he was able to integrate knowledge that he gained from many different sources to enrich and broaden the study and practice of Psychology. He associated more with anthropologists and sociologists than with psychoanalysts, he even enjoyed the company and ideas of Jungians. Although he was a psychoanalyst, he seems to have been able to integrate the ideas from cognitive and behavioural psychology into his work. Perhaps Erikson best expresses this himself, from Childhood and Society.
the human personality in principle develops according to steps predetermined in the growing person's readiness to...
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