Erik erikson theory
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Biography of Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
Erik Erikson, a psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist, helped reshape how we think about human development. In his theory of psychosocial development, Erikson framed development as a series of conflicts that take place at various points during our lives.
The social challenges of childhood, the search for identity in adolescence, and the ups and downs of finding love in adulthood are just a few examples. How we cope with each of these conflicts determines the psychological virtues we develop.
What made Erikson so notable was that his theories marked a significant shift in how we think about personality. Rather than only focusing on early childhood events, his psychosocial theory looked at how social influences contributed to our personalities *throughout* our entire lives.
Erikson's stage theory of psychosocial development generated interest and research on human development through the lifespan. An ego psychologist who studied with Anna Freud, Erikson expanded psychoanalytic theory by exploring development throughout life,
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12.2: Brief Biography of Erik Erikson
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The most curious aspect of Erik Erikson’s life is certainly that his name was not Erikson. No one alive today knows the name of his real father, and he never learned it either. He implored his mother to tell him who his father was, as did his wife Joan, but Erikson’s mother had promised her second husband, Theodor Homburger, the man who raised Erikson and whose name Erikson had been given, that she would never reveal the truth. And she kept that promise. When Erikson and his family moved to the United States, their son Kai was taunted by schoolmates, who called him “hamburger, hamburger.” So, Erikson and his wife turned to the Scandinavian tradition of naming a son after his father, and they called their son Kai Erik’s son, or Kai Erikson. They then adopted the surname themselves, becoming Erik and Joan Erikson. It is also surprising to note that Joan Erikson’s name was not Joan. Her first name was Sarah, and as a child she was called Sally. According to her daughter Su
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Erik Erikson
American psychoanalyst and essayist (1902-1994)
For other people with similar names, see Eric Erickson (disambiguation).
Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a Danish-German-Jewish child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis.
Despite lacking a university degree, Erikson served as a professor at prominent institutions, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley,[9] and Yale. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Erikson as the 12th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.
Early life
Erikson's mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a prominent Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was married to Jewish stockbroker Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen but had been estranged from him for several months at the time Erik was conceived. Little is known about Erik's biological father except that he was a non-Jewish Dane. On discovering her pregnancy, Karla fled to Frankfurt
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