Erik erikson interesting facts

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Erik erikson contribution to psychology

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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

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 biological father except that he was a non-Jewish Dane. On discovering her pregnancy, Karla fled to Frankfurt

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12.2: Brief Biography of Erik Erikson

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The most curious aspect of Erik Erikson’s life is certainly that his name was not Erikson. No one alive today knows the name of his real father, and he never learned it either. He implored his mother to tell him who his father was, as did his wife Joan, but Erikson’s mother had promised her second husband, Theodor Homburger, the man who raised Erikson and whose name Erikson had been given, that she would never reveal the truth. And she kept that promise. When Erikson and his family moved to the United States, their son Kai was taunted by schoolmates, who called him “hamburger, hamburger.” So, Erikson and his wife turned to the Scandinavian tradition of naming a son after his father, and they called their son Kai Erik’s son, or Kai Erikson. They then adopted the surname themselves, becoming Erik and Joan Erikson. It is also surprising to note that Joan Erikson’s name was not Joan. Her first name was Sarah, and as a child she was called Sally. According to her daughter Su

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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 is 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 going beyond the Freudian focus on childhood sexuality, by including social environmental factors, an