Erikson Shortly Before His Death
This very long post will concern itself with a review of the work of Erik Erikson and his Stages of Psychosocial Development. I want to have this up on the Blog for future reference.
I will begin by reviewing the world of psychoanalysis, which began with the work of Sigmund Freud:
Without question, his contribution to the fields of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and counseling psychology was without peer. Indeed, his work by itself spawned a generation of “shrinks” throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and well into the 1950s.
Indeed, we cannot speak of “therapy” without giving a tip of the hat to Sigmund.
Many people rejected his work, while others sought to add-on to his theories in very meaningful ways. We would not have, for example, the notion of a “mid-life crisis” had its author, Carl Jung, not studied under Dr. Freud. His daughter, Anna Freud, contributed mightily to his father’s work. The Freudian structure of personality was the “reference standard” against which all comers were compared.
He founded the school of psychoanalytic theory. The importance of unconscious processes in human motivation and his concepts of personality (the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO) cannot be overstated. Indeed, the proper development of personality at various stages in the development of the infant to toddler to child to adolescent to young adult will determine the ultimate success of the adult until death. Erikson, as we will soon see, elaborated on the development of personality in his eight stages – arguing, as did Freud, that successful negotiation of each stage would set-up future success in later stages. Freud set forth the so-called psychosexual stages that we have all heard of: ORAL, ANAL, PHALLIC, LATENCY, and GENITAL. These inborn drives determine later personality development.
But it was Erikson who argued that successful adaptation to one’s environment was also critical. Others argued that object relations were also critical. OBJECT refers to persons in a child’s life who can fulfill needs or to whom the child can become attached. These are important notions to keep in mind as you read this rather long post.
Erik Erikson studied under Anna Freud and made considerable contributions to Freud’s ego psychology (recall Freud’s conception of the psyche as comprised of EGO, ID, and SUPEREGO). Erikson’s most important contribution was that of setting forth so-called psycho-social life stages, which included adult as well as child development. Beginning with Freud’s psychosexual stages, Erikson demonstrated their implications for growth and development as the individual relates to the external world.
Erikson’s eight stages focus on critical tasks that arise from what he saw as “crises,” which in turn arise at significant points in life. If these crises are not successful overcome, if the critical tasks are not successfully negotiated, then future crises and their related critical tasks will prove far more difficult (if not impossible) to overcome.
Of note is this very important difference between Freud and Erikson: While Sigmund saw the psycho-sexual stages as having definitive endpoints, Erikson saw the stages as remaining evident throughout life. For example, the very first stage, that of trust-versus-mistrust, begins in infancy. But if not mastered successfully, it will affect relationships at any time during the person’s life.
Here then are the eight stages (with reference to Freud’s psychosexual stages in parentheses):
Stage One: Infancy, TRUST VERSUS MISTRUST. An infant must develop trust in her mother to provide food and comfort so that when her mother is not available, she does not experience anxiety or rage. If these basic needs are not met, then non-trusting interpersonal relationships may result later in life. (The ORAL stage would be the Freudian analogue and, like Erikson, is focused on the trust the infant must have that the mother will see to its basic needs. Freud consider the unmet need here to translate later in life to insecurity in interpersonal relationships, or an overly developed dependency).
Stage Two: Early Childhood, AUTONOMY VERSUS SHAME and DOUBT. Erikson was of the belief that during this stage the child must develop bladder and bowel control with confidence and without criticism from his parents. If parents promote dependency at this stage, or are critical of the child, the development of INDEPENDENCE will be thwarted. (Freud famously labeled this the ANAL stage. If parents respond with disgust at the child’s natural tendency to want to experiment with his own “output,” then the child will develop a lowered sense of self-esteem. Alternatively, being overly complimentary of what the child does can (and most often does) result in an overly developed sense of control, cleanliness, and orderliness (the so-called anal-retentive personality). Freud also saw children as wanting to develop control over other children during this phase, something which must also be considered in the parenting of the child.)
Stage Three: Preschool, INITIATIVE VERSUS GUILT. Without laboring over Freud’s notion of “envy” of other children’s private parts, Erikson saw this stage as involving the displacement of natural anger and resentment toward the same-sex parent, or rivalry with the other-sex parent. That displacement of energy is the stage’s crisis point: To be successful it must be displaced toward competence and initiative. The child will need to learn how to engage in social and creative play activities (herein lies the notion of play therapy, by the way). A child deprived of such displacement opportunities will develop guilt about taking initiative for their own lives later in life. (The PHALLIC stage was Freud’s notion and involved the LIBIDO for which he is famous. Libido as a source of development energy was conceived of similarly to Erikson and was something to be channeled. Sexual identification later in life could be problematic, Freud thought, if the stage was not negotiated carefully by both parents.)
Stage Four: School Age, INDUSTRY VERSUS INFERIORITY. At this point, Erikson felt that the child must learn basic skills required for success in school. The development of a sex-role identity begins to gel at this point as well. If the child fails to develop basic cognitive skills in this stage (mostly through adequate schooling), then a sense of inadequacy or inferiority may develop. (LATENCY was Freud’s name for the stage, and as the name implies, the libido discussed in stage three is now latent (sublimated) in favor of the channeled energy toward school, developing friends, sports and hobbies.)
Stage Five: Adolescence, IDENTITY VERSUS ROLE CONFUSION. This is a key
phase in most people’s lives, particularly in the affluent west of the past 50 years. During this phase, teenagers should be developing confidence that others see them as they see themselves (aka, solid identity). At this point, adolescents are able to develop educational and career goals and deal with issues regarding the meaning of life. If this is not done – that is, if this phase is not negotiated successfully – a sense of role confusion will result. Role confusion is another way of saying that the average teenager, absent some degree of confidence, will be totally confounded by the world around them and may even shrink from it (or, sadly, attack it without remorse). Evidence of an unsuccessful negotiation of this phase is an inability to set educational or career goals. (GENITAL was Freud’s overarching name for this stage, and for the remainder of Erikson’s stages. Freud saw it as a time when the adolescent will begin to focus his or her sexual energy towards members of the opposite sex. This might be seen as “other love” rather than the “Self-Love” which characterizes the earlier Freudian stages).
Stage five of Erikson’s stages is perhaps the most difficult stage, candidly, and may well determine the course of the person’s life. Role Confusion is often evident in the people with whom we interact every day.
Stage Six: Young Adulthood, INTIMACY VERSUS ISOLATION. As the person emerges from adolescence into young adulthood, it is often concurrent with the beginnings of a career (or of serious work or school endeavors). Cooperative relationships are developed – cooperative in the sense of mutual self-interest – along with intimate relationships with another person. Success will beget success in this stage and the young adult will flourish. Conversely, failure in this stage will often lead to a sense of alienation or isolation.
Stage Seven: Middle Age, GENERATIVITY VERSUS STAGNATION. Let us assume that the individual has successfully negotiated stage six and has developed solid relationships that, by now, will be producing reward at an exponential rate. Offspring is one element and might contribute to the word “generativity” that Erikson uses. But it is more than mere procreation. A sense of duty to others, regardless of friendship or not, regardless of the promise of return on investment, if you will, will emerge here. The idea will emerge of taking responsibility for helping others whom we do not know intimately. Think again of what Erikson might have meant by the word “generativity” and we can see that the individual who successful negotiates this stage will want to generate energy that helps others at any stage in their lives. A sense of productivity and accomplishment will begin to emerge; absent this, a certain apathy about the world will mark their failure.
Of note here was Erikson’s conception of middle age. In the decades of his life, ending in 1994, middle age was considered the late 40s and most of the 50s, with old age setting in around the time we turned 60. Of course, this has changed, and middle age begins later and ends much later, probably not until the late 60s. Bear this in mind when considering the onset of stagnation. It may be that the client who is evidencing all manner of stagnation is in reality, experiencing the isolation and alienation of Stage Six.
Stage Eight: Later Life, INTEGRITY VERSUS DESPAIR. People are prone to look back on their lives and wonder “if only,” and it is this process of life-review that Erikson sought to capture in the last stage. We may feel as if we have not handled our lives well or develop a sense of having not accomplished all that we set out to do. Remorse may be present, and at time, downright depression. This he called “despair,” and we are only now beginning to understand it as the root of so many “grey suicides” that are happening in our country today.
Conversely, the idea of “integrity” would evidence a successful conclusion to one’s life. Integrity in Erikson’s nomenclature is the sense of having won more games that we lost, that we did so with aplomb and moral integrity, and that we can and often do integrate our knowledge in a way so as to pass it along to others. Here we see the so-called memoirs of the rich and famous. Or the so-called “life reviews” captured on film and held in our local libraries.
The existential question in this Stage 8 is, “Is it okay to have been me? Did my life count?” (the answer to which can either imply a smooth transition to death, or a failure to negotiate this stage and, sadly, contribute to early death).
As we grow older and become senior citizens we tend to slow down our productivity and explore life as a retired person. It is during this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and are able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading (or as having led) a successful life. If we see our life as unproductive, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, we become dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often leading to depression, hopelessness, or suicide.
Remember this: The final developmental task is retrospection, or a process by which people look back on their lives and accomplishments. They develop feelings of contentment and integrity if they believe that they have led a happy, productive life. They may instead develop a sense of despair if they look back on a life of disappointments and un-achieved goals. This is an area where I wonder if man, absent any sense of contribution, or of having built something, won’t slip into permanent despair at a much earlier age.
So, anyway, that is my long post on Erikson’s stages of development. I think it vastly interesting stuff.
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