Erikson biography
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Erik Erikson
American psychoanalyst and essayist (1902-1994)
For other people with similar names, see Eric Erickson (disambiguation).
Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a Danish-German-Jewish child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis.
Despite lacking a university degree, Erikson served as a professor at prominent institutions, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley,[9] and Yale. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Erikson as the 12th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.
Early life
[edit]Erikson's mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a prominent Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was married to Jewish stockbroker Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen but had been estranged from him for several months at the time Erik was conceived. Little is known about Erik's biologica
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Erik Homburger Erikson (June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994) was a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory of human psychosocial development, and for coining the phrase "identity crisis." Although lacking academic credentials, he was an excellent writer and insightful researcher, winning prizes for his writings and becoming a distinguished professor at Harvard University. Erikson's own life experiences, growing up as an outsider, led him to study cultural influences on personality development.
Erikson's theory proposes that psychological development fryst vatten a combination of pre-programmed biological changes in the body in the context of the social environment, and the person's responses to social situations—especially at points of developmental crisis. By resolving each crisis successfully, people can develop a stable, integrated personality. He applied this mechanism to the development of virtues such as courage, loyalty, care, and wisdom. By g
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Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson’s relationship with Harvard spanned decades, coinciding with some of his most influential works. Born in Frankfurt, and trained in psychoanalysis in Vienna by Anna Freud, Erikson came to Boston in 1933. He accepted an appointment as a research associate at the Harvard Psychological Clinic; in conjunction with that position Erikson started to work on a graduate degree in psychology at Harvard. Finding himself at odds with the quantitative, empirical focus of Harvard’s Psychology Department, Erikson discontinued his studies in 1936 without finishing his degree. For the next two decades he pursued his interests in human development by conducting research at Yale and Berkeley, as well as continuing his private psychoanalytic practice.
Erikson’s humanist theory of psychosocial development deviated significantly from the traditional Freudian psychosexual theory of human development in two ways. Erikson believed that humans’ pers