• Born in Germany in 1902 to a single Jewish woman from Denmark.
• Having a clearly Scandinavian appearance, he discovered that the man who raised him was his adopted father. His mother then claimed his father was a previous husband, but he never found out who his real father was.
  
• At school, he was called a Jew; in temple, he was called a “goy” (derogatory name for a non-Jew).
• Attended primary school and a “humanistic gymnasium,” similar to a high school. Disliking formal education, he never received a higher degree, though he enrolled in an art school twice.
  
• Suffered a “severe, near-psychotic, adolescent identity crisis.”
  
• Took to wandering, and disliked being in one place for long, though colleagues respected him greatly.
• Found “admirable substitute fathers in Freud, Luther, Gandhi, and Jesus.”
• Changed his name to from Homburger (adopted father’s name) to Erikson upon becoming a US citizen.
• Married Canadian Anglican Joan Serson, who also significantly helped Erikson assemble his life stages theory.
• Some notable publications include: "Childhood and Society," "Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History," "Identity: Youth and Crisis," "Gandhi's Truth: On the Origin of Militant Nonviolence," and "The Life Cycle Completed"

Erik was born in 1902 (Havens) to a Jewish mother who lied twice about who his father was, and thereafter still refused to tell. Unlike his “short and dark” mother and adoptive father, he was tall, blonde, and blue-eyed, and had trouble finding acceptance in or out of the Jewish community. His mother, despite being Jewish, also pushed him toward Christian concepts (and he eventually became an Episcopal Christian after marrying Canadian Anglican Joan Serson). As a result, he suffered a “severe, near-psychotic, adolescent identity crisis” and eventually rejected his adopted father’s name, taking the more Danish name “Erikson” when he became an American citizen (Cornett), as if to imply he created himself. Erikson later used his identity crisis to better identify and empathize with adolescent crises. Lacking an “acceptable” father, he also took time “finding admirable substitute fathers in Freud, Luther, Gandhi, and Jesus.” (Carveth)

In school he was called a Jew, and in the synagogue his family went to, a “goy” (a derogatory term for a non-Jew). In time, he made his way to Freud’s circle in Vienna, where he was accepted and discovered a talent for psychotherapy, with a particular strength with children and adolescents.  Though he called himself a psychoanalyst, he didn’t focus on pathology as did the others, but on the strengths and aspirations of his patients. He did not stay put though, but kept moving around and learning, recognized and accepted – even becoming a tenured Harvard professor – but always moving on again. He became a “cultural hero” in the US, “certified by a remarkable range of lectureships, honorary degrees, and, finally, attacks.” (Havens)

He was among the first to acknowledge that society and culture directly affected the individual. (Haven, Cornett)

• There are eight stages of human growth which all people must pass through in a pre-determined, unchangeable order.
  
• Passing from one stage to another involves a psychosocial crisis. Successful passage earns a particular virtue in the process, strengthening the ego; failure to pass weakens the ego and can reduce ones ability to deal with future crises.
• Each stage features a conflict of opposing ideas; ideally, the individual reaches a balance between many pairings.
• The stages are:
  1. Oral-sensory stage, up to 1 year. Conflict of basic trust vs. mistrust. Goal virtue: hope.
  2. Muscular-anal stage, 2-3 years. Conflict of autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Goal virtue: will.
  3. Locomotor-genital stage, 4-5 years. Conflict of initiative vs. guilt. Goal virtue: purpose.
  4. Latency stage, 6-12 years. Conflict of industry vs. inferiority. Goal virtue: competence.
  5. Adolescence stage, 13-19 years. Conflict of identity vs. role confusion. Goal virtue: fidelity.
  6. Young adulthood stage, 20-24 years. Conflict of intimacy vs isolation. Goal virtue: love.
  7. Middle adulthood stage, 25-64 years. Conflict of generativity vs. stagnation. Goal virtue: care.
  8. Late adulthood stage, 65+ years. Conflict of ego integrity vs. despair. Goal virtue: wisdom.

Just because someone has passed through a crisis and into the next stage, does not mean they will not have to pass the same or a similar crisis again later on, nor does it necessarily mean they will pass it again.

“In Burston's view, it was Erikson's deep, filial loyalty to Freud, not so much to his daughter Anna, who had trained him, that caused him to downplay and even obscure the depth of his revisionist departures from Freudian, ego psychological orthodoxy. In extending Freud's stages of epigenetic development through adolescence, youth, young adulthood, and the middle years to old age, Erikson implied a far greater capacity for development and change beyond childhood than Freud acknowledged. In addition to significantly broadening the conceptualization of the conflicts and crises of each stage, Erikson described the bodily zones-which for Freud were the sources of the drives-as simply vehicles for varying modes of relatedness.

All in all, despite his deep respect for the master, Erikson was in fundamental disagreement with what he described as Freud's "centaur model of man"-as a creature who is half beast and half human. Rather, Erikson's conception of the fundamental human conflict was one between the forces of nature and those of culture; his view of our sociality was something not in itself biologically grounded, but rather superimposed upon our biology; and he disagreed with the idea of the projection of our distinctively and perversely human aggression onto the "beast" in us when, as he recognized, only humans are beastly, while animals never are.” (Carveth)

“What was once considered visionary thinking on a variety of clinical and social issues is in danger of being reduced to an overly simplified eight stage model of the life cycle.” “A second irony is that the life cycle model itself, his most frequently cited contribution, seems generally to be misunderstood.” “Friedman also tackles Erikson's eight stage psychosocial developmental model with a critical eye. Although this model developed over many years and was indeed one of Erikson's preoccupations throughout his life, it developed, Friedman asserts, out of more than clinical observation and research. A great deal of work on

the development of this schema took place after the birth of Erik and Joan Erikson's son, Neil. Neil suffered from Down Syndrome and was almost immediately institutionalized under Erik's guidance. This fact was kept a secret from the other three Erikson children for some time and created dramatic tension between Erik and Joan. Friedman contends that Joan Erikson might have attempted to raise Neil in the context of the family had it not been for her being overburdened with care-giving-including that of her sometimes childlike husband. Working on the psychosocial life cycle model brought the couple together and was a balm for the marriage. Erikson often credited his wife for much of the innovation of the model; and, indeed, as the couple aged and Erik became more physically frail, Joan Erikson continued working on the model and presenting it in her husband's stead. However, in addition to the life cycle model being a source of nourishment for the marriage, Friedman offers another fascinating hypothesis regarding its origin: ‘At the most personal level, the model was a map that located health and normalcy and placed five Eriksons at that location. As such, it helped assure them that they were developmentally healthy even as Neil, located elsewhere, was not.’” (Cornett)

“The model has some inherent paradoxes and ambiguities. For instance, Erikson described each "stage" as having a bipolar quality, and the potential for a dominant resolution, one often presented as preferable to the other (e.g., Trust versus Mistrust: basic trust is the preferable outcome). However, there is considerable evidence that Erikson realized that both qualities were required for wholeness. In a 1983 interview in Psychology Today (Hall, 1983), Erikson asserted in regard to the bipolar nature of the developmental stages that "It's exactly a matter of balance, but we avoid the terms `positive' and `negative.' Sometimes what we call the `dystonic tendency' can have positive aspects." He offers the first developmental stage as an example: "out of the conflict between trust and mistrust, the infant develops hope, which is the earliest form of what gradually becomes faith in adults."” “The developmental process is much more likely to be something like a "decision tree" in which events at a particular time nudge one in a particular direction, which then, in turn, increases the probability that one will confront one set of events and experiences rather than another. This then also nudges one in a particular developmental direction, and so it continues.”

“Also during the eighties, under feminist assault, Erikson acknowledged that his model was applicable to men, but probably not to women (Elizabeth Mayer's chapter in Ideas and identities is quite interesting in looking at both sides of this debate and finding some common ground).” (Cornett)

“His early life was apparently serene in most other respects. Erik attended primary school from age 6 to 10 and a humanistic gymnasium (roughly equivalent to high school) until he was 18. He did not take well, however, to the strict and formal academic atmosphere, and he was not a good student (Coles, 1970, p. 14). His aversion to formal education continued throughout his life; he never earned a university degree.” (Ryckman)

• Ryckman, R. M. (2008). Chapter 6: Erikson's psychoanalytic ego psychology. In Theories of personality (9th ed.). Thomson/Wadsworth.
  
• Cornett, C. (2000). Ideas and identities: The life and work of Erik Erikson / identity's architect: A biography of Erik H Erikson. Clinical Social Work Journal, 28(1), 123-128. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/227770501?accountid=130772
  
• Havens, L. (1999, May 09). Do you know me? Erik Erikson became a culture hero by studying the self in its many guises. But who was he? Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/405278983?accountid=130772
  
• Carveth, D. L. (2008). Erik Erikson and the American psyche: Ego, ethics, and evolution. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis,16(1), 108-112,140. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/222769433?accountid=130772
  
• Erikson, E. H. (1994). Identity: youth and crisis. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company.  [*]
  
• Erik Erikson, 91, psychoanalyst who reshaped views of human growth, dies. (1994, May 19). The New York Times [New York City]. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/13/obituaries/erik-erikson-91-psychoanalyst-who-reshaped-views-of-human-growth-dies.html
  

*  Incomplete previews via Google Books

• Friedman, L. J. (2000). Identity's architect: A biography of Erik H. Erikson. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. [*]
  
• McComas, E. (2000). Erik H. Erikson. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/mccomas.htm
  
• Boeree, C. G. (2006). Erik Erikson. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html
  
• National Book Foundation (n.d.). 1970 National Book Awards Winners and Finalists. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.nationalbook.org/nba1970.html

*  Incomplete previews via Google Books

Minor note: My notes in the different sections may have gotten mixed up a bit. This system was a bit more of a pain to work with than expected, so please forgive any such mix-ups.