Erik Erikson: biography of this researcher and psychoanalyst

Erik Erikson was the father of psychosocial development theory., which postulated that each human stage entails a series of obstacles and conflicts that the person must successfully manage in order to develop satisfactorily. His experience as a teacher at the Hietzing School had a lot to do with his work, where he met great personalities, including Anna Freud.

In this biography of Erik Erikson we tell you about the trajectory of this psychologist and her contributions to the field of education and child development.

Brief biography of Erik Erikson

The origin of Erik Homburger Erikson, a German-American psychologist famous for his contributions to the developmental psychology (and, especially to the identity crisis of adolescence), is as uncertain as it is curious.

In fact, Erikson wasn't even her real last name, and the truth is that, as much as he asked his mother who her father was, she never wanted to tell him.

Conflicting and uncertain origins

Karla Abrahamsen, a Jew belonging to a wealthy family in the city of Copenhagen, had married a certain Valdemar Salomonsen, but this was not the biological father of little Erik. A few days after the wedding, Salomonsen left for America, and Karla never saw him again. She remade her life and became pregnant, although she never revealed the name of the father of her child.

Shocked by the "immoral" behavior of her daughter, Karla's family sent her to Frankfurt, where Erik was born. For some years, Karla raised her son as a single mother, because she, despite the fact that she was still married to this Valdemar, he never returned from overseas. She, too, never heard from the biological father of her son again.

Later, and once she found out that her husband had died, Karla married the pediatrician who had treated Erik. during the illness that befell him at the age of three, Dr. Theodor Homberger, and the new family moved to the south of Germany; specifically, to Karlsruhe. Theodor acted as a father to little Erik, and he did not learn the truth until he was eight years old. Despite everything, in the face of the child's insistent questions about her biological father, Karla remained silent.

Erik's relationship with her mother was always quite good, as he shared with her a certain sensitivity and love for art and philosophy.. We know little about his father, Dr. Homberger, since Erik almost never mentions him in his texts. We can deduce that the relationship with this new father (after all, the only one Erik had ever known) was not particularly good.

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The bohemian youth of Erik Erikson

Young Erik's early years were characterized by a certain rebelliousness; following his deep desire to be an artist, the boy toured Europe living practically as a destitute (they say that he slept in the street and under the bridges and survived with the furtive pension that his mother sent him behind his back Homberger). At this point, relations between the adoptive father and the young Erik had deteriorated enough, since the former did not understand the irresponsibility that his son showed towards life.

After a year of bohemianism in Europe, Erik returns to Germany and enrolls in an art school in Munich.. However, the walls of a school did not seem to suit our artist well, since we later find him wandering again, this time through the streets of Florence. It is at this time that Erik deeply questions his future as an artist, and the conclusions he reaches make him fall into a depression.

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An unexpected turn

Peter Blos was an old classmate of Erik's, with whom he had shared studies at the Gymnasium, a place where our character was imbued with art and classical culture. Aware of Erik's important notions of art and history, Blos invited him to be part of the plan to studies at the school that he had just created together with Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud, the daughter of the famous psychoanalyst. It is probable that this offer lifted Erik out of the depression in which he found himself immersed: he would not be an artist, but at least he would teach art.

The educational experiment, founded in 1927, was called the Hietzing School, and it put Anna Freud's psychoanalytic ideas into practice with children. Erik Erikson was the school's humanities teacher, but Little by little, his contact with Anna and the rest of the Freud family made his interests turn towards psychoanalysis. and especially in child behavior.

His interest in psychology and psychoanalysis led him to obtain a certificate in Montessori education and one from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The former aspiring artist had finally found his true calling.

In 1929, Erik meets Joan Serson, a young Canadian who was in Vienna studying for her at a masked ball. The crush was instantaneous and the two young men soon moved in together. However, when Joan discovered that she was pregnant, Erik refused to marry her. Finally, probably because of the pressure exerted on her psyche by the trauma of not knowing her biological father, he agreed to marry and give his last name to the child Joan was expecting.

His move to America

The years in which the couple taught at the Hietzing School were happy ones. But in 1932 a black shadow began to spread across Germany. The arrival of the Nazis was intuited and Erik feared for the safety of his family. Therefore, the following year, Just after the Nazi party came to power, Erik, Joan, and their two children left for the United States and settled in Boston..

In America, Erik made a living as a child psychoanalyst, as well as teaching at Harvard Medical School. In those years he met anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead, as well as psychologists Henry Murray and Kurt Lewin, whose theories influenced his work.

Psychosocial development according to Erikson

Erikson is especially known for his psychosocial development theory, formulated in the 50s, in which the psychologist establishes that each period of human development presents a series of obstacles and challenges. If the person manages to successfully resolve each stage (called by Erikson "identity crisis"), the vital development of it will be satisfactory.

According to Erikson, these periods would be eight, which we can summarize as follows:

• Period of trust versus mistrust: from birth to about a year and a half. In this stage, the baby learns who she can trust and who she can't, which will determine future relationships with her parents and with her environment.
• Period of autonomy versus shame and doubt: from 18 months to approximately three years of life. At this stage the child is aware of his body and begins to understand what autonomy is.
• Initiative vs. Fault Period: from three to five years. Children begin to play and interact with others, and they must harmonize their desire for initiative and the need for cooperation.
• Period of industriousness versus inferiority: from five years to thirteen. The child-adolescent already uses abstract concepts and is capable of carrying out actions that require greater complexity.
• Identity Exploration Period vs. Identity Diffusion: from thirteen to twenty-one. Sexual identity is explored and young people begin to form the person they want to become.
• Period of intimacy versus isolation: From twenty-one to forty years. At this stage, the person wants to find a company that he can trust and that provides him with security.
• Period of generativity versus stagnation: from forty to sixty years. It is the stage in which time and effort are dedicated to the bond we have established (family, work, vocation, etc.).
• Period of ego integrity versus despair: from the sixties onwards. It is the last stage of life, in which the person looks to the past and takes stock. If the previous vital stages have been passed correctly, this balance will be positive.