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Ukrainian:Ерік Еріксон
Russian:Эрик Эриксон (translated by Max Shirmanov)
German:Erik Erikson (translated by Philip Egger)
Dutch:Erik Erikson (translated by Arno Hazecamp)
Croatian:Erik Erikson (translated by Marie Walton)
Serbian:Ерик Ериксон (translated by Branca Fiagic)

Among the Oglala Lakota, it was the tradition for an adolescent boyto go off on his own, weaponless and wearing nothing but a loinclothandmocassins, on a dream quest. Hungry, thirsty, and bone-tired, the boywouldexpect to have a dream on the fourth day which would reveal to him hislife's path. Returning home, he would relate his dream to the tribalelders,who would interpret it according to ancient practice. And his dreamwouldtell him whether he was destined to be a good hunter, or a greatwarrior,or expert at the art of horse-stealing, or perhaps to becomespecializedin the making of weapons, or a spiritual leader, priest, or medicineman.

In some cases, the dream would lead him into the realm of controlleddeviations among the Oglala. A dream involving the thunderbird mightleada boy to go through a period of time as a heyoka, which involved actinglike a clown or a crazy man. Or a vision of the moon or a white buffalocould lead one to a life as a berdache, a man who dresses and behavesasif he were a woman.

In any case, the number of roles one could play in life wasextremelylimited for men, and even more so for women. Most people weregeneralists;very few could afford to be specialists. And you learned these roles bysimply being around the other people in your family and community. Youlearned them by living.

By the time the Oglala Lakota were visited by Erik Erikson, thingshadchanged quite a bit. They had been herded onto a large but barrenreservationthrough a series of wars and unhappy treaties. The main source of food,clothing, shelter, and just about everything else -- the buffalo -- hadlong since been hunted into near-extinction. Worst of all, the patternsof their lives had been taken from them, not by white soldiers, but bythe quiet efforts of government bureaucrats to turn the Lakota intoAmericans!

Children were made to stay at boarding schools much of the year, inthe sincere belief that civilization and prosperity comes witheducation.At boarding schools they learned many things that contradicted whattheylearned at home: They were taught white standards of cleanliness andbeauty,some of which contradicted Lakota standards of modesty. They weretaughtto compete, which contradicted Lakota traditions of egalitarianism.Theywere told to speak up, when their upbringing told them to be still. Inother words, their white teachers found them quite impossible to workwith,and their parents found them quite corrupted by an alien culture.

As time went by, their original culture disappeared, but the newculturedidn't provide the necessary substitutions. There were no more dreamquests,but then what roles were there left for adolescents to dream themselvesinto?

Erikson was moved by the difficulties faced by the Lakota childenandadolescents he talked to and observed. But growing up and finding one'splace in the world isn't easy for many other Americans, either.African-Americansstruggle to piece together an identity out of forgotten African roots,the culture of powerlessness and poverty, and the culture of thesurroundingwhite majority. Asian-Americans are similarly stretched between AsianandAmerican traditions. Rural Americans find that the cultures ofchildhoodwon't cut it in the larger society. And the great majority ofEuropean-Americanshave, in fact, little left of their own cultural identities other thanwearing green on St. Patrick's Day or a recipe for marinara sauce fromgrandma! American culture, because it is everybody's, is in some sensesnobody's.

Like native Americans, other Americans have also lost many of theritualsthat once guided us through life. At what point are you an adult? Whenyou go through puberty? Have your confirmation or bar mitzvah? Yourfirstsexual experience? Sweet sixteen party? Your learner's permit? Yourdriver'slicense? High school graduation? Voting in your first election? Firstjob?Legal drinking age? College graduation? When exactly is it thateveryonetreats you like an adult?

Consider some of the contradictions: You may be old enough to beentrustedwith a two-ton hunk of speeding metal, yet not be allowed to vote; Youmay be old enough to die for your country in war, yet not be permittedto order a beer; As a college student, you may be trusted withthousandsof dollars of student loans, yet not be permitted to choose your ownclasses.

In traditional societies (even our own only 50 or 100 years ago), ayoung man or woman looked up to his or her parents, relations,neighbors,and teachers. They were decent, hard-working people (most of them) andwe wanted to be just like them.

Unfortunately, most children today look to the mass media,especiallyT.V., for role models. It is easy to understand why: The people on T.V.are prettier, richer, smarter, wittier, healthier, and happier thananybodyin our own neighborhoods! Unfortunately, they aren't real. I'm alwaysastoundedat how many new college students are quickly disappointed to discoverthattheir chosen field actually requires a lot of work and study. Itdoesn'ton T.V. Later, many people are equally surprised that the jobs theyworkedso hard to get aren't as creative and glorious and fulfilling as theyexpected.Again, that isn't how it is on T.V. It shouldn't surprise us that somanyyoung people look to the short-cuts that crime seems to offer, or thefantasylife that drugs promise.

Some of you may see this as an exaggeration or a stereotype ofmodernadolescence. I certainly hope that your passage from childhood toadulthoodwas a smooth one. But a lot of people -- myself and Erikson included --could have used a dream quest.

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 15, 1902. Thereis a little mystery about his heritage: His biological father was anunnamedDanish man who abandoned Erik's mother before he was born. His mother,Karla Abrahamsen, was a young Jewish woman who raised him alone for thefirst three years of his life. She then married Dr. Theodor Homberger,who was Erik's pediatrician, and moved to Karlsruhe in southernGermany.

We cannot pass over this little piece of biography without somecomment:The development of identity seems to have been one of his greatestconcernsin Erikson's own life as well as in his theory. During his childhood,andhis early adulthood, he was Erik Homberger, and his parents kept thedetailsof his birth a secret. So here he was, a tall, blond, blue-eyed boy whowas also Jewish. At temple school, the kids teased him for beingNordic;at grammar school, they teased him for being Jewish.

After graduating high school, Erik focussed on becoming an artist.Whennot taking art classes, he wandered around Europe, visiting museums andsleeping under bridges. He was living the life of the carefree rebel,longbefore it became "the thing to do."

When he was 25, his friend Peter Blos -- a fellow artist and, later,psychoanalyst -- suggested he apply for a teaching position at anexperimentalschool for American students run by Dorothy Burlingham, a friend ofAnnaFreud. Besides teaching art, he gathered a certificate in Montessorieducationand one from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. He was psychoanalyzedbyAnna Freud herself.

While there, he also met Joan Serson, a Canadian dance teacher attheschool. They went on the have three children, one of whom became asociologisthimself.

With the Nazis coming into power, they left Vienna, first forCopenhagen,then to Boston. Erikson wasoffered a position at the Harvard Medical School and practiced childpsychoanalysisprivately. During this time, he met psychologists like Henry Murray andKurt Lewin, and anthropologists like Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, andGregory Bateson. I think it can be safely said that theseanthropologistshad nearly as great an effect on Erikson as Sigmund and Anna Freud!

He later taught at Yale, and later still at the University ofCaliforniaat Berkeley. It was during this period of time that he did his famousstudiesof modern life among the Lakota and the Yurok.

When he became an American citizen, he officially changed his nametoErik Erikson. Erikson's son, Kai Erikson, believes it was just adecision to define himself as a self-made man: Erik, son of Erik.

In 1950, he wrote Childhood and Society, which contained summariesofhis studies among the native Americans, analyses of Maxim Gorkiy andAdolphHitler, a discussion of the "American personality," and the basicoutlineof his version of Freudian theory. These themes -- the influence ofcultureon personality and the analysis of historical figures -- were repeatedin other works, one of which, Gandhi's Truth, won him the PulitzerPrizeand the national Book Award.

In 1950, during Senator Joseph McCarthy's reign of terror, EriksonleftBerkeley when professors there were asked to sign "loyalty oaths." Hespentten years working and teaching at a clinic in Massachussets, and tenyearsmore back at Harvard. Since retiring in 1970, he wrote and did researchwith his wife. He died in 1994.

Erikson is a Freudianego-psychologist. This means that heacceptsFreud's ideas as basically correct, including the more debatable ideassuch as the Oedipal complex, and accepts as well the ideas about theegothat were added by other Freudian loyalists such as Heinz Hartmann and,of, course, Anna Freud. However, Erikson is much more society andculture-orientedthan most Freudians, as you might expect from someone with hisanthropologicalinterests, and he often pushes the instincts and the unconsciouspracticallyout of the picture. Perhaps because of this, Erikson is popular amongFreudiansand non-Freudians alike!

The epigenetic principle

He is most famous for his work in refining and expanding Freud'stheoryof stages. Development, he says, functions by theepigeneticprinciple.This principle says that we develop through a predetermined unfoldingofour personalities in eight stages. Our progress through each stage isinpart determined by our success, or lack of success, in all the previousstages. A little like the unfolding of a rose bud, each petal opens upat a certain time, in a certain order, which nature, through itsgenetics,has determined. If we interfere in the natural order of development bypulling a petal forward prematurely or out of order, we ruin thedevelopmentof the entire flower.

Each stage involves certain developmentaltasks that arepsychosocialin nature. Although he follows Freudian tradition by calling themcrises,they are more drawn out and less specific than that term implies. Thechildin grammar school, for example, has to learn to be industrious duringthatperiod of his or her life, and that industriousness is learned throughthe complex social interactions of school and family.

The various tasks are referred to by two terms. The infant's task,forexample, is called "trust-mistrust." At first, it might seem obviousthatthe infant must learn trust and not mistrust. But Erikson made it clearthat there it is a balance we must learn: Certainly, we need to learnmostlytrust; but we also need to learn a little mistrust, so as not to growupto become gullible fools!

Each stage has a certainoptimal time as well. It is no usetryingto rush children into adulthood, as is so common among people who areobsessedwith success. Neither is it possible to slow the pace or to try toprotectour children from the demands of life. There is a time for each task.

If a stage is managed well, we carry away a certainvirtueorpsychosocial strength which will help us through the rest of the stagesof our lives. On the other hand, if we don't do so well, we may developmaladaptations and malignancies, as well as endanger all our futuredevelopment.A malignancy is the worse of the two, and involves too little of thepositiveand too much of the negative aspect of the task, such as a person whocan'ttrust others. A maladaptation is not quite as bad and involves too muchof the positive and too little of the negative, such as a person whotruststoo much.

Children and adults

Perhaps Erikson's greatest innovation was to postulate not fivestages,as Freud had done, but eight. Erikson elaborated Freud's genital stageinto adolescence plus three stages of adulthood. We certainly don'tstopdeveloping -- especially psychologically -- after our twelfth orthirteenthbirthdays; It seems only right to extend any theory of stages to coverlater development!

Erikson also had some things to say about the interaction ofgenerations,which he calledmutuality. Freud had made it abundantly clearthata child's parents influence his or her development dramatically.Eriksonpointed out that children influence their parents' development as well.The arrival of children, for example, into a couple's life, changesthatlife considerably, and moves the new parents along their developmentalpaths. It is even appropriate to add a third (and in some cases, afourth)generation to the picture: Many of us have been influenced by ourgrandparents,and they by us.

A particularly clear example of mutuality can be seen in theproblemsof the teenage mother. Although the mother and her child may have afinelife together, often the mother is still involved in the tasks ofadolescence,that is, in finding out who she is and how she fits into the largersociety.The relationship she has or had with the child's father may have beenimmatureon one or both sides, and if they don't marry, she will have to dealwiththe problems of finding and developing a relationship as well. Theinfant,on the other hand, has the simple, straight-forward needs that infantshave, and the most important of these is a mother with the matureabilitiesand social support a mother should have. If the mother's parents stepinto help, as one would expect, then they, too, are thrown off of theirdevelopmentaltracks, back into a life-style they thought they had passed, and whichthey might find terribly demanding. And so on....

The ways in which our lives intermesh are terribly complex and veryfrustrating to the theorist. But ignoring them is to ignore somethingvitallyimportant about our development and our personalities.


 

Chart adapted from Erikson's 1959Identityand the Life Cycle (PsychologicalIssues vol 1, #1)

The first stage

The first stage, infancy or theoral-sensory stage, isapproximatelythe first year or year and a half of life. The task is to develop trustwithout completely eliminating the capacity formistrust.

If mom and dad can give the newborn a degree of familiarity,consistency,and continuity, then the child will develop the feeling that the world-- especially the social world -- is a safe place to be, that peoplearereliable and loving. Through the parents' responses, the child alsolearnsto trust his or her own body and the biological urges that go with it.

If the parents are unreliable and inadequate, if they reject theinfantor harm it, if other interests cause both parents to turn away from theinfants needs to satisfy their own instead, then the infant willdevelopmistrust. He or she will be apprehensive and suspicious around people.

Please understand that this doesn't mean that the parents have to beperfect. In fact, parents who are overly protective of the child, aretherethe minute the first cry comes out, will lead that child into themaladaptivetendency Erikson callssensory maladjustment: Overlytrusting,even gullible, this person cannot believe anyone would mean them harm,and will use all the defenses at their command to retain theirpollyannaperspective.

Worse, of course, is the child whose balance is tipped way over onthemistrust side: They will develop themalignant tendency ofwithdrawal,characterized by depression, paranoia, and possibly psychosis.

If the proper balance is achieved, the child will develop the virtuehope,the strong belief that, even when things are not going well, they willwork out well in the end. One of the signs that a child is doing wellinthe first stage is when the child isn't overly upset by the need towaita moment for the satisfaction of his or her needs: Mom or dad don'thaveto be perfect; I trust them enough to believe that, if they can't behereimmediately, they will be here soon; Things may be tough now, but theywill work out. This is the same ability that, in later life, gets usthroughdisappointments in love, our careers, and many other domains of life.

Stage two

The second stage is the anal-muscular stage of earlychildhood,from about eighteen months to three or four years old. The task is toachievea degree ofautonomy while minimizing shame and doubt.

If mom and dad (and the other care-takers that often come into thepictureat this point) permit the child, now a toddler, to explore andmanipulatehis or her environment, the child will develop a sense of autonomy orindependence.The parents should not discourage the child, but neither should theypush.A balance is required. People often advise new parents to be "firm buttolerant" at this stage, and the advice is good. This way, the childwilldevelop both self-control and self-esteem.

On the other hand, it is rather easy for the child to developinsteada sense of shame and doubt. If the parents come down hard on anyattemptto explore and be independent, the child will soon give up with theassumptionthat cannot and should not act on their own. We should keep in mindthateven something as innocent as laughting at the toddler's efforts canleadthe child to feel deeply ashamed, and to doubt his or her abilities.

And there are other ways to lead children to shame and doubt: If yougive children unrestricted freedom and no sense of limits, or if youtryto help children do what they should learn to do for themselves, youwillalso give them the impression that they are not good for much. If youaren'tpatient enough to wait for your child to tie his or her shoe-laces,yourchild will never learn to tie them, and will assume that this is toodifficultto learn!

Nevertheless, a little "shame and doubt" is not only inevitable, butbeneficial. Without it, you will develop the maladaptive tendencyEriksoncallsimpulsiveness, a sort of shameless willfulness that leadsyou, in later childhood and even adulthood, to jump into things withoutproper consideration of your abilities.

Worse, of course, is too much shame and doubt, which leads to themalignancyErikson callscompulsiveness. The compulsive person feels as iftheir entire being rides on everything they do, and so everything mustbe done perfectly. Following all the rules precisely keeps you frommistakes,and mistakes must be avoided at all costs. Many of you know how itfeelsto always be ashamed and always doubt yourself. A little more patienceand tolerance with your own children may help them avoid your path. Andgive yourself a little slack, too!

If you get the proper, positive balance of autonomy and shame anddoubt,you will develop the virtue ofwillpower or determination. Oneofthe most admirable -- and frustrating -- thing about two- andthree-year-oldsis their determination. "Can do" is their motto. If we can preservethat"can do" attitude (with appropriate modesty to balance it) we are muchbetter off as adults.

Stage three

Stage three is thegenital-locomotor stage or play age. Fromthree or four to five or six, the task confronting every child is tolearninitiativewithout too muchguilt.

Initiative means a positive response to the world's challenges,takingon responsibilities, learning new skills, feeling purposeful. Parentscanencourage initiative by encouraging children to try out their ideas. Weshould accept and encourage fantasy and curiosity and imagination. Thisis a time for play, not for formal education. The child is now capable,as never before, of imagining a future situation, one that isn't arealityright now. Initiative is the attempt to make that non-reality areality.

But if children can imagine the future, if they can plan, then theycan be responsible as well, and guilty. If my two-year-old flushes mywatchdown the toilet, I can safely assume that there were no "evilintentions."It was just a matter of a shiny object going round and round and down.What fun! But if my five year old does the same thing... well, sheshouldknow what's going to happen to the watch, what's going to happen todaddy'stemper, and what's going to happen to her! She can be guilty of theact,and she can begin to feel guilty as well. The capacity for moraljudgementhas arrived.

Erikson is, of course, a Freudian, and as such, he includes theOedipalexperience in this stage. From his perspective, the Oedipal crisisinvolvesthe reluctance a child feels in relinquishing his or her closeness totheopposite sex parent. A parent has the responsibility, socially, toenouragethe child to "grow up -- you're not a baby anymore!" But if thisprocessis done too harshly and too abruptly, the child learns to feel guiltyabouthis or her feelings.

Too much initiative and too little guilt means a maladaptivetendencyErikson callsruthlessness. The ruthless person takes theinitiativealright; They have their plans, whether it's a matter of school orromanceor politics or career. It's just that they don't care who they step onto achieve their goals. The goals are everything, and guilty feelingsarefor the weak. The extreme form of ruthlessess is sociopathy.

Ruthlessness is bad for others, but actually relatively easy on theruthless person. Harder on the person is the malignancy of too muchguilt,which Erikson calls inhibition. The inhibited person will nottrythings because "nothing ventured, nothing lost" and, particularly,nothingto feel guilty about. On the sexual, Oedipal, side, the inhibitedpersonmay be impotent or frigid.

A good balance leads to the psychosocial strength ofpurpose.A sense of purpose is something many people crave in their lives, yetmanydo not realize that they themselves make their purposes, throughimaginationand initiative. I think an even better word for this virtue would havebeen courage, the capacity for action despite a clear understanding ofyour limitations and past failings.

Stage four

Stage four is thelatency stage, or the school-age childfromabout six to twelve. The task is to develop a capacity forindustrywhile avoiding an excessive sense ofinferiority. Children must"tame the imagination" and dedicate themselves to education and tolearningthe social skills their society requires of them.

There is a much broader social sphere at work now: The parents andotherfamily members are joined by teachers and peers and other members of hecommunity at large. They all contribute: Parents must encourage,teachersmust care, peers must accept. Children must learn that there ispleasurenot only in conceiving a plan, but in carrying it out. They must learnthe feeling of success, whether it is in school or on the playground,academicor social.

A good way to tell the difference between a child in the third stageand one in the fourth stage is to look at the way they play games.Four-year-oldsmay love games, but they will have only a vague understanding of therules,may change them several times during the course of the game, and beveryunlikely to actually finish the game, unless it is by throwing thepiecesat their opponents. A seven-year-old, on the other hand, is dedicatedtothe rules, considers them pretty much sacred, and is more likely to getupset if the game is not allowed to come to its required conclusion.

If the child is allowed too little success, because of harshteachersor rejecting peers, for example, then he or she will develop instead asense of inferiority or incompetence. An additional source ofinferiorityErikson mentions is racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination:If a child believes that success is related to who you are rather thanto how hard you try, then why try?

Too much industry leads to the maladaptive tendency callednarrowvirtuosity. We see this in children who aren't allowed to "bechildren,"the ones that parents or teachers push into one area of competence,withoutallowing the development of broader interests. These are the kidswithouta life: child actors, child athletes, child musicians, child prodigiesof all sorts. We all admire their industry, but if we look a littlecloser,it's all that stands in the way of an empty life.

Much more common is the malignancy calledinertia. Thisincludesall of us who suffer from the "inferiority complexes" Alfred Adlertalkedabout. If at first you don't succeed, don't ever try again! Many of usdidn't do well in mathematics, for example, so we'd die before we tookanother math class. Others were humiliated instead in the gym class, sowe never try out for a sport or play a game of raquetball. Others neverdeveloped social skills -- the most important skills of all -- and sowenever go out in public. We become inert.

A happier thing is to develop the right balance of industry andinferiority-- that is, mostly industry with just a touch of inferiority to keep ussensibly humble. Then we have the virtue calledcompetency.

Stage five

Stage five isadolescence, beginning with puberty and endingaround 18 or 20 years old. The task during adolescence is to achieveegoidentity and avoidrole confusion. It was adolescence thatinterestedErikson first and most, and the patterns he saw here were the bases forhis thinking about all the other stages.

Ego identity means knowing who you are and how you fit in to therestof society. It requires that you take all you've learned about life andyourself and mold it into a unified self-image, one that your communityfinds meaningful.

There are a number of things that make things easier: First, weshouldhave a mainstream adult culture that is worthy of the adolescent'srespect,one with good adult role models and open lines of communication.

Further, society should provide clearrites of passage,certainaccomplishments and rituals that help to distinguish the adult from thechild. In primitive and traditional societies, an adolescent boy may beasked to leave the village for a period of time to live on his own,huntsome symbolic animal, or seek an inspirational vision. Boys and girlsmaybe required to go through certain tests of endurance, symbolicceremonies,or educational events. In one way or another, the distinction betweenthepowerless, but irresponsible, time of childhood and the powerful andresponsbiletime of adulthood, is made clear.

Without these things, we are likely to see role confusion, meaninganuncertainty about one's place in society and the world. When anadolescentis confronted by role confusion, Erikson say he or she is sufferingfroman identity crisis. In fact, a common question adolescents in oursocietyask is a straight-forward question of identity: "Who am I?"

One of Erikson's suggestions for adolescence in our society is thepsychosocialmoratorium. He suggests you take a little "time out." If you havemoney,go to Europe. If you don't, bum around the U.S. Quit school and get ajob.Quit your job and go to school. Take a break, smell the roses, get toknowyourself. We tend to want to get to "success" as fast as possible, andyet few of us have ever taken the time to figure out what success meansto us. A little like the young Oglala Lakota, perhaps we need to dreama little.

There is such a thing as too much "ego identity," where a person isso involved in a particular role in a particular society or subculturethat there is no room left for tolerance. Erikson calls thismaladaptivetendencyfanaticism. A fanatic believes that his way is theonlyway. Adolescents are, of course, known for their idealism, and fortheirtendency to see things in black-and-white. These people will gatherothersaround them and promote their beliefs and life-styles without regard toothers' rights to disagree.

The lack of identity is perhaps more difficult still, and Eriksonrefersto the malignant tendency here asrepudiation. They repudiatetheirmembership in the world of adults and, even more, they repudiate theirneed for an identity. Some adolescents allow themselves to "fuse" witha group, especially the kind of group that is particularly eager toprovidethe details of your identity: religious cults, militaristicorganizations,groups founded on hatred, groups that have divorced themselves from thepainful demands of mainstream society. They may become involved indestructiveactivities, drugs, or alcohol, or you may withdraw into their ownpsychoticfantasies. After all, being "bad" or being "nobody" is better than notknowing who you are!

If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will have the virtueEriksoncalledfidelity. Fidelity means loyalty, the ability to live bysocieties standards despite their imperfections and incompleteness andinconsistencies. We are not talking about blind loyalty, and we are nottalking about accepting the imperfections. After all, if you love yourcommunity, you will want to see it become the best it can be. Butfidelitymeans that you have found a place in that community, a place that willallow you to contribute.

Stage six

If you have made it this far, you are in the stage of youngadulthood,which lasts from about 18 to about 30. The ages in the adult stages aremuch fuzzier than in the childhood stages, and people may differdramatically.The task is to achieve some degree ofintimacy, as opposed toremaininginisolation.

Intimacy is the ability to be close to others, as a lover, a friend,and as a participant in society. Because you have a clear sense of whoyou are, you no longer need to fear "losing" yourself, as manyadolescentsdo. The "fear of commitment" some people seem to exhibit is an exampleof immaturity in this stage. This fear isn't always so obvious. Manypeopletoday are always putting off the progress of their relationships: I'llget married (or have a family, or get involved in important socialissues)as soon as I finish school, as soon as I have a job, as soon as I havea house, as soon as.... If you've been engaged for the last ten years,what's holding you back?

Neither should the young adult need to prove him- or herselfanymore.A teenage relationship is often a matter of trying to establishidentitythrough "couple-hood." Who am I? I'm her boy-friend. The young adultrelationshipshould be a matter of two independent egos wanting to create somethinglarger than themselves. We intuitively recognize this when we frown ona relationship between a young adult and a teenager: We see thepotentialfor manipulation of the younger member of the party by the older.

Our society hasn't done much for young adults, either. The emphasison careers, the isolation of urban living, the splitting apart ofrelationshipsbecause of our need for mobility, and the general impersonal nature ofmodern life prevent people from naturally developing their intimaterelationships.I am typical of many people in having moved dozens of times in my life.I haven't the faintest idea what has happened to the kids I grew upwith,or even my college buddies. My oldest friend lives a thousand milesaway.I live where I do out of career necessity and, until recently, havefelt no real sense ofcommunity.

Before I get too depressing, let me mention that many of you may nothave had these experiences. If you grew up and stayed in yourcommunity,and especially if your community is a rural one, you are much morelikelyto have deep, long-lasting friendships, to have married your highschoolsweetheart, and to feel a great love for your community. But this styleof life is quickly becoming an anachronism.

Erikson calls the maladaptive formpromiscuity, referingparticularlyto the tendency to become intimate too freely, too easily, and withoutany depth to your intimacy. This can be true of your relationships withfriends and neighbors and your whole community as well as with lovers.

The malignancy he callsexclusion, which refers to thetendencyto isolate oneself from love, friendship, and community, and to developa certain hatefulness in compensation for one's loneliness.

If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will instead carrywithyou for the rest of your life the virtue or psychosocial strengthEriksoncallslove. Love, in the context of his theory, means beingableto put aside differences and antagonisms through "mutuality ofdevotion."It includes not only the love we find in a good marriage, but the lovebetween friends and the love of one's neighbor, co-worker, andcompatriotas well.

Stage seven

The seventh stage is that ofmiddle adulthood. It is hard topin a time to it, but it would include the period during which we areactivelyinvolved in raising children. For most people in our society, thiswouldput it somewhere between the middle twenties and the late fifties. Thetask here is to cultivate the proper balance ofgenerativityandstagnation.

Generativity is an extension of love into the future. It is aconcernfor the next generation and all future generations. As such, it isconsiderablyless "selfish" than the intimacy of the previous stage: Intimacy, thelovebetween lovers or friends, is a love between equals, and it isnecessarilyreciprocal. Oh, of course we love each other unselfishly, but therealityis such that, if the love is not returned, we don't consider it a truelove. With generativity, that implicit expectation of reciprocity isn'tthere, at least not as strongly. Few parents expect a "return on theirinvestment" from their children; If they do, we don't think of them asvery good parents!

Although the majority of people practice generativity by having andraising children, there are many other ways as well. Erikson considersteaching, writing, invention, the arts and sciences, social activism,andgenerally contributing to the welfare of future generations to begenerativityas well -- anything, in fact, that satisfies that old "need to beneeded."

Stagnation, on the other hand, is self-absorption, caring forno-one.The stagnant person ceases to be a productive member of society. It isperhaps hard to imagine that we should have any "stagnation" in ourlives,but the maladaptive tendency Erikson callsoverextensionillustratesthe problem: Some people try to be so generative that they no longerallowtime for themselves, for rest and relaxation. The person who isoverextendedno longer contributes well. I'm sure we all know someone who belongs toso many clubs, or is devoted to so many causes, or tries to take somanyclasses or hold so many jobs that they no longer have time for any ofthem!

More obvious, of course, is the malignant tendency ofrejectivity.Too little generativity and too much stagnation and you are no longerparticipatingin or contributing to society. And much of what we call "the meaning oflife" is a matter of how we participate and what we contribute.

This is the stage of the "midlife crisis." Sometimes men and womentakea look at their lives and ask that big, bad question "what am I doingall thisfor?"Notice the question carefully: Because their focus is on themselves,theyask what, rather than whom, they are doing it for. In their panic atgettingolder and not having experienced or accomplished what they imaginedtheywould when they were younger, they try to recapture their youth. Menareoftenthe most flambouyant examples: They leave their long-suffering wives,quittheir humdrum jobs, buy some "hip" new clothes, and start hangingaroundsingles bars. Of course, they seldom find what they are looking for,becausethey are looking for the wrong thing!

But if you are successful at this stage, you will have a capacityforcaring that will serve you through the rest of your life.

Stage eight

This last stage, referred to delicately aslate adulthood ormaturity, or less delicately as old age, begins sometime aroundretirement,after the kids have gone, say somewhere around 60. Some older folkswillprotest and say it only starts when you feel old and so on, but that'san effect of our youth-worshipping culture, which has even old peopleavoidingany acknowledgement of age. In Erikson's theory, reaching this stage isa good thing, and not reaching it suggests that earlier problemsretardedyour development!

The task is to developego integrity with a minimal amountofdespair.This stage, especially from the perspective of youth, seems like themostdifficult of all. First comes a detachment from society, from a senseofusefulness, for most people in our culture. Some retire from jobsthey'veheld for years; others find their duties as parents coming to a close;most find that their input is no longer requested or required.

Then there is a sense of biological uselessness, as the body nolongerdoes everything it used to. Women go through a sometimes dramaticmenopause;Men often find they can no longer "rise to the occasion." Then therearethe illnesses of old age, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart problems,concerns about breast and ovarian and prostrate cancers. There comefearsabout things that one was never afraid of before -- the flu, forexample,or just falling down.

Along with the illnesses come concerns of death. Friends die.Relativesdie. One's spouse dies. It is, of course, certain that you, too, willhaveyour turn. Faced with all this, it might seem like everyone would feeldespair.

In response to this despair, some older people become preoccupiedwiththe past. After all, that's where things were better. Some becomepreoccupiedwith their failures, the bad decisions they made, and regret that(unlikesome in the previous stage) they really don't have the time or energytoreverse them. We find some older people become depressed, spiteful,paranoid,hypochondriacal, or developing the patterns of senility with or withoutphysical bases.

Ego integrity means coming to terms with your life, and therebycomingto terms with the end of life. If you are able to look back and acceptthe course of events, the choices made, your life as you lived it, asbeingnecessary, then you needn't fear death. Although most of you are not atthis point in life, perhaps you can still sympathize by consideringyourlife up to now. We've all made mistakes, some of them pretty nastyones;Yet, if you hadn't made these mistakes, you wouldn't be who you are. Ifyou had been very fortunate, or if you had played it safe and made veryfew mistakes, your life would not have been as rich as is.

The maladaptive tendency in stage eight is calledpresumption.This is what happens when a person "presumes" ego integrity withoutactuallyfacing the difficulties of old age. The malignant tendency is calleddisdain,by which Erikson means a contempt of life, one's own or anyone's.

Someone who approaches death without fear has the strength Eriksoncallswisdom.He calls it a gift to children, because "healthy children will not fearlife if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death." Hesuggeststhat a person must be somewhat gifted to be truly wise, but I wouldliketo suggest that you understand "gifted" in as broad a fashion aspossible:I have found that there are people of very modest gifts who have taughtme a great deal, not by their wise words, but by their simple andgentleapproach to life and death, by their "generosity of spirit."

I can't think of anyone, other than Jean Piaget, who has promotedthestage approach to development more than Erik Erikson. And yet stagesarenot at all a popular concept among personality theorists. Of the peoplereviewed in this text, only Sigmund and Anna Freud fully share hisconvictions.Most theorists prefer an incremental or gradual approach todevelopment,and speak of "phases" or "transitions" rather than of clearly markedstages..

But there are certain segments of life that are fairly easy toidentify,that do have the necessary quality of biologically determined timing.Adolescenceis "preprogrammed" to occur when it occurs, as is birth and, verypossibly,natural death. The first year of life has some special, fetus-likequalities,and the last year of life includes certain "catastrophic" qualities.

If we stretch the meaning of stages to include certain logicalsequences,i.e. things that happen in a certain order, not because they arebiologicallyso programmed, but because they don't make sense any other way, we canmake an even better case: weaning and potty training have to precedetheindependence from mother required by schooling; one is normallysexuallymature before finding a lover, normally finds a lover before havingchildren,and necessarily has children before enjoying their leaving!

And if we stretch the meaning of stages even further to includesocial"programming" as well as biological, we can include periods ofdependenceand schooling and work and retirement as well. So stretched, it is nolongera difficult matter to come up with seven or eight stages; Only now, ofcourse, you'd be hard pressed to call them stages, rather than "phases"or something equally vague.

It is, in fact, hard to defend Erikson's eight stages if we acceptthedemands of his understanding of what stages are. In different cultures,even within cultures, the timing can be quite different: In somecountries,babies are weaned at six months and potty trained at nine months; inothers,they still get the breast at five and potty training involves littlemorethan taking it outside. At one time in our own culture, people weremarriedat thirteen and had their first child by fifteen. Today, we tend topostponemarriage until thirty and rush to have our one and only child beforeforty.We look forward to many years of retirement; in other times and otherplaces,retirement is unknown.

And yet Erikson's stages do seem to give us a framework. We can talkabout our culture as compared with others', or today as compared with afew centuries ago, by looking at the ways in which we differ relativetothe "standard" his theory provides. Erikson and other researchers havefound that the general pattern does in fact hold across cultures andtimes,and most of us find it quite familiar. In other words, his theory meetsone of the most important standards of personality theory, a standardsometimesmore important than "truth:" It is useful.

It also offers us insights we might not have noticed otherwise. Forexample, you may tend to think of his eight stages as a series of tasksthat don't follow any particularly logical course. But if you dividethelifespan into two sequences of four stages, you can see a real pattern,with a child development half and an adult development half.

In stage I, the infant must learn that "it" (meaning the world,especiallyas represented by mom and dad and itself) is "okay." In stage II, thetoddlerlearns "I can do," in the here-and-now. In stage III, the preschoolerlearns"I can plan," and project him or herself into the future. In stage IV,the school-age child learns "I can finish" these projections. In goingthrough these four stages, the child develops a competent ego, readyforthe larger world.

In the adult half of the scheme, we expand beyond the ego. Stage V,is concerned with establishing something very similar to "it is okay:"The adolescent must learn that "I am okay," a conclusion predicated onsuccessful negotiation of the preceding four stages. In stage VI, theyoungadult must learn to love, which is a sort of social "I can do," in thehere-and-now. In stage VII, the adult must learn to extend that loveintothe future, as caring. And in stage VIII, the old person must learn to"finish" him- or herself as an ego, and establish a new and broaderidentity.We could borrow Jung's term, and say that the second half of live isdevotedto realizing one's self.

Erikson is an excellent writer and will capture your imaginationwhetheryou are convinced by his Freudian side or not. The two books that layouthis theory areChildhood and Society andIdentity: YouthandCrisis. These are more like collections of essays on subjects asvariedas Native American tribes, famous people like William James and AdolphHitler, nationality, race, and gender.

His most famous books are two studies in "Psychohistory,"YoungManLuther on Martin Luther, andGhandi's Truth.

Copyright 1997, 2006  C. George Boeree