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Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was an American child psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis .
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated in the second half of the 20th century by Erik Erikson in collaboration with Joan Erikson, [1] is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages that a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood.
In psychology, identity crisis is a stage theory of identity development which involves the resolution of a conflict over eight stages of life. [1] [2] The term was coined by German psychologist Erik Erikson. The stage of psychosocial development in which identity crisis may occur is called identity cohesion vs. role confusion.
Childhood and Society was the first of Erikson's books to become popular. [2] The critic Frederick Crews calls the work "a readable and important book extending Freud's developmental theory." [3] The Oxford Handbook of Identity names Erikson as the seminal figure in "the developmental approach of understanding identity". [4]
Each of Erikson's stages include both a positive and negative influences that can go on to be seen later in an individual's life. His theory includes the influence of biological factors on development. [9] Jane Loevinger (b.1918) built on the work of Erikson in her description of stages of ego development.
Joan Erikson was the main collaborator in developing the eight stages of psychosocial development with her husband Erik Erikson. Her contribution to Erikson's theory of personality could have been neglected, but was nevertheless important: Erik admitted being unable to distinguish between his own contribution and his wife's. [ 18 ]
Erik Erikson developed stages of ego development that extended through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. He was trained in psychoanalysis and was highly influenced by Freud, but unlike Freud, Erikson believed that social interaction is very important to the individual's psychosocial development.
Ego integrity was the term given by Erik Erikson to the last of his eight stages of psychosocial development, and used by him to represent 'a post-narcissistic love of the human ego—as an experience which conveys some world order and spiritual sense, no matter how dearly paid for'. [1]