Erik Eriksons

Ego Psychology

Erik Homburger Erikson

Born on June 15, 1902 near Frankfurt,
Germany
Danish parents
Mother, Karla Abrahamsen, married a
pediatrician named Theodor Homburger
The development of identity seems to
have been one of his greatest concerns in
Erikson's own life as well as in his theory.

Erik Homburger Erikson

After graduating high school, Erik focused
on becoming an artist.
When not taking art classes, he wandered
around Europe, visiting museums and
sleeping under bridges.
When he was 25, a friend suggested he
apply for a teaching position at an
experimental school for American
students run by Dorothy Burlingham.

Erik Homburger Erikson

Besides teaching art, he gathered a
certificate in Montessori education and
one from the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Society.
There he met Joan Serson, a Canadian
dance teacher at the school, whom he
married and had four children.
His family moved to the United States
when Fascism in Europe escalated

Erik Homburger Erikson

He was offered a position at the Harvard
Medical School in 1960 and practiced child
psychoanalysis privately.
His study in the Montessori system
influenced his interest in play therapy &
child analysis.

He later taught at Yale and at the

University of California at Berkeley.

Erik Homburger Erikson

He became the first child psychoanalyst in
Massachussets

He later taught at Yale and at the

University of California at Berkeley.
When he became an American citizen, he
officially changed his name to Erik Erikson.

Erik Homburger Erikson

He retired in 1970 & in 1987 founded the Erik
Erikson Center in Cambridge.
He died on May 12, 1994 at the age 91

The books he wrote were:

Young Man Luther (1936)

Childhood & Society (1950)
Identity, Youth & Crisis (1968)
Ghandhis Truth (1969)
Dimensions of A New Identity (1974) *
Life History & Historical Moment (1975)
Identity & the Life Cycle (1980)
The Life Cycle Completed (1982)

View of Human Nature

View of Human Nature

Erikson extended the study of the developing child
beyond puberty.
He emphasized that the ego continues to acquire new
characteristics as it meets new situations in life.
Ego is a tool by which a person organizes outside
information, tests perception, selects memories, governs
actions & integrates the capabilities of orientation &
planning.

View of Human Nature

Positive ego produces a sense of self with a heightened
well-being.
The resolution of a crisis is reversible.

Epigenetic Principle
This principle says that we develop through a
predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight
stages.

Our progress through each stage is in part determined by

our success, or lack of success, in all the previous stages.

Important Points
Stages of a persons life are formed by social
influences interacting with a physically or
psychologically maturing organism
Eriksons theory extends to old age
Every stage involves an interaction between
opposites

 The consecutive stages are not laid out in a

strict chronological order
Each stage contributes to the formation of
total personality
Personality development at each stage is
characterized by an identity crisis

Research methods
Case History
Depicts individuals who were not able to maintain
integrity in the face of crisis

Anthropological Study
Early childhood training was consistent with the
strong cultural values, and that history & society
helped shape personality

Research methods
Psychohistory
The study of individual & collective life, using
combined methods of case history & psychoanalysis
Deal with people who are able to maintain ego
identity & integrity

Play Construction
Projective technique used for children
Erikson developed a standardized play situation where
children are instructed to imagine themselves as
directors & construct a scene using the toys.