Erik Erikson
He started his career as an artist.
Anna Freud met him and decided to train him as a psychoanalyst for children.
He started becoming famous and teaching in universities even though he had no
academic credentials.
He found a theory of his own—ego psychology.
o He had a lot of agreements with Freud, but he focused on the ego and he
thought that the ego is the most important component, and that it is the
component that tries to find harmony.
o He said that the autonomy of the ego is the most important thing.
He came up with his own stages of development and named them the psychosocial
stages of development.
o He is trying to say that there are stages but remove sex and add society.
o He believed that life consists of 8 stages from birth to death—he said that
there will be a crisis in each stage that needs to be resolved.
o A person either resolves it in a positive way or react to it in a negative way—
which would cause neurosis.
o There are phases—and the person will pass through each of these stages—in
each of these stages, the crisis will have a percentage of positivity and
negativity. What will make the person get through it is the ratio, how much
positive there is vs negative.
o 1-immature phase
Not important if you resolve it or not.
o 2-critical phase
Important to resolve because it’s in a critical period.
o 3-resolution phase.
In each stage there is ritualization and ritualism
o Ritualization is the interplay between unfolding personality requirements and
existing social and cultural conditions (positive).
o Ritualism is the false ritualization or stereotyped one—when it becomes too
much (negative).
The eight stages of development (psychosocial stages)
every stage has a virtue that will appear if the stage was developed in a positive
way.
o 1-infancy (from birth to the first year of life):
basic trust vs. basic mistrust.
The contact comfort, feelings of love, either one will trust the world
and environment or will mistrust it.
Numinous vs. idolism—the ways the mother attends and listens to her
child—the attachment style. If too much (idolism), the child will be
overly attached. Numinous is the normal feeling of attachment, but if it
gets out of hand, it becomes negative (idolism)
The virtue will be hope.
He started his career as an artist.
Anna Freud met him and decided to train him as a psychoanalyst for children.
He started becoming famous and teaching in universities even though he had no
academic credentials.
He found a theory of his own—ego psychology.
o He had a lot of agreements with Freud, but he focused on the ego and he
thought that the ego is the most important component, and that it is the
component that tries to find harmony.
o He said that the autonomy of the ego is the most important thing.
He came up with his own stages of development and named them the psychosocial
stages of development.
o He is trying to say that there are stages but remove sex and add society.
o He believed that life consists of 8 stages from birth to death—he said that
there will be a crisis in each stage that needs to be resolved.
o A person either resolves it in a positive way or react to it in a negative way—
which would cause neurosis.
o There are phases—and the person will pass through each of these stages—in
each of these stages, the crisis will have a percentage of positivity and
negativity. What will make the person get through it is the ratio, how much
positive there is vs negative.
o 1-immature phase
Not important if you resolve it or not.
o 2-critical phase
Important to resolve because it’s in a critical period.
o 3-resolution phase.
In each stage there is ritualization and ritualism
o Ritualization is the interplay between unfolding personality requirements and
existing social and cultural conditions (positive).
o Ritualism is the false ritualization or stereotyped one—when it becomes too
much (negative).
The eight stages of development (psychosocial stages)
every stage has a virtue that will appear if the stage was developed in a positive
way.
o 1-infancy (from birth to the first year of life):
basic trust vs. basic mistrust.
The contact comfort, feelings of love, either one will trust the world
and environment or will mistrust it.
Numinous vs. idolism—the ways the mother attends and listens to her
child—the attachment style. If too much (idolism), the child will be
overly attached. Numinous is the normal feeling of attachment, but if it
gets out of hand, it becomes negative (idolism)
The virtue will be hope.
