CHAPTER 7: Post Freudian Theory (Erik Erikson)

• Theodor Homburger - Erik’s step father
• Valdemar Salomonsen - First husband of Erik’s Mother
• Erik Erikson coined the term Identity Crisis
• Post Freudian Theory

  • Erikson’s theory of personality that extended Freud’s developmental stages into old age. At each age, a specific psychosocial struggle contributes to the formation of personality. 
• Erikson suggested that at each stage a specific psychosocial struggle contributes to the formation of personality. 
• Identity Crisis

  • Erickson’s term for a crucial period or turning point in the life cycle that may result in either more or less ego strength. This can be found in those Eriksonian stages that follow the development of identity, ordinarily during adolescence
• In addition to elaborating on psychosexual stages beyond childhood, Erikson placed more emphasis on both social and historical influences.
• One of the founders of the school was Anna Freud, who became not only Erikson’s employer, but his psychoanalyst as well. 
• While in Vienna, Erikson met and, with Anna Freud’s permission, married Joan Serson, a Canadian-born dancer, artist, and teacher who had also undergone psychoanalysis.
• The Eriksons had four children: sons Kai, Jon, and Neil and daughter Sue. 
• He failed to take good care of his son Neil, who was born with Down syndrome.
• In America, he changed his name from Homburger to Erikson.
• In contrast, Erikson held that our ego is a positive force that creates a self identity, a sense of “I.”
• Erikson saw the ego as a partially unconscious organizing agency that synthesizes our present experiences with past self-identities and also with anticipated images of self. 
• He defined the ego as a person’s ability to unify experiences and actions in an adaptive manner.
• Three interrelated aspects of ego: the body ego, the ego ideal, and ego identity.
• The Body Ego refers to experiences with our body; a way of seeing our physical self as different from other people. We may be satisfied or dissatisfied with the way our body looks and functions, but we recognize that it is the only body we will ever have.
• The ego ideal represents the image we have of ourselves in comparison with an established ideal; it is responsible for our being satisfied or dissatisfied not only with our physical self but also with our entire personal identity.
• Ego identity is the image we have of ourselves in the variety of social roles we play. Although adolescence is ordinarily the time when these three components are changing most rapidly, alterations in body ego, ego ideal, and ego identity can and do take place at any stage of life. 
• To Erikson, the ego exists as potential at birth, but it must emerge from within a cultural environment
• Oral Personalities are people who gain great pleasure through functions of the mouth.
• Erikson (1963), argued that orality among the Sioux hunters and anality among the Yurok fishermen are adaptive characteristics that help both the individual and the culture.
• Pseudospecies is the illusion held by a particular society that it is somehow chosen to be more important than other societies. 
• Epigenetic Principle - Erikson’s term meaning that one component grows out of another in its proper time and sequence.
• In similar fashion, the ego follows the path of epigenetic development, with each stage developing at its proper time. 
• This epigenetic development is analogous to the physical development of children.
• Epigenesis means that one characteristic develops on top of another in space and time
• First, growth takes place according to the epigenetic principle. That is, one component part arises out of another and has its own time of ascendancy, but it does not entirely replace earlier components
• Second, in every stage of life there is an interaction of opposites - that is, a conflict between a syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element. 
• Syntonic

  • Erikson’s term for the positive element in each pair of opposites that characterize his eight stages of development.
• Dystonic

  • Erikson’s term for the negative element in each pair of opposites that characterizes the eight stages of development. 
• Third, at each stage, the conflict between the dystonic and syntonic elements produces an ego quality or ego strength, which Erikson referred to as a basic strength. 
• Basic Strength - The ego quality that emerges from the conflict between antithetical elements in Erikson’s stages of development. 
• Fourth, too little basic strength at any one stage results in a core pathology for that stage.
• Core Pathology - A psychosocial disorder at any of the eight stages of development that results from too little basic strength. 
• Fifth, although Erikson referred to his eight stages as psychosocial stages, he never lost sight of the biological aspect of human development
• Sixth, events in earlier stages do not cause later personality development
• Ego identity is shaped by a multiplicity of conflicts and events—past, present, and anticipated.
• Seventh, during each stage, but especially from adolescence forward, personality development is characterized by an identity crisis, which Erikson (1968) called “a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential”,
• Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development with Their Appropriate Basic Strengths and Psychosocial Crises:

  1. Infancy = Oral Sensory - Basic Trust vs Basic Mistrust (HOPE)
  2. Early Childhood = Muscular Anal - Autonomy Vs Shame and Doubt (WILL)
  3. Play Age = Locomotor Genital - Initiative vs Guilt (PURPOSE)
  4. School age = Latency - Industry vs Inferiority (COMPETENCE)
  5. Adolescence = Puberty and Adolescence - Identity Vs Confusion (FIDELITY)
  6. Young Adulthood - Intimacy vs Isolation (LOVE)
  7. Adulthood - Generativity vs Stagnation (CARE)
  8. Old Age = Maturity - Ego Integrity vs Despair (WISDOM)