Erik H. Erikson
| Erik Homberger Erikson | |
|---|---|
Erik Erikson
|
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| Born | Erik Salomonsen 15 June 1902 Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany |
| Died | 12 May 1994 (aged 91) Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Citizenship | American, German |
| Fields | Developmental psychologist |
| Institutions |
Yale University University of California, Berkeley University of Pittsburgh Harvard Medical School |
| Notable students | Richard Sennett |
| Known for | Theory on social development |
| Influences | Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud |
| Influenced | James Marcia |
| Spouse | Joan Serson Erikson (1930–1994; his death; 4 children) |
Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist.
Although Erikson lacked even a bachelor's degree, he served as a professor at prominent institutions such as Harvard and Yale. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Erikson as the 12th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.
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 Danish gentile. On discovering her pregnancy, Karla fled to Frankfurt, Germany, where Erik was born on June 15, 1902 and was given the surname Salomonsen.
Following Erik's birth, Karla trained to be a nurse and moved to Karlsruhe. In 1905 she married Erik's Jewish pediatrician, Theodor Homberger. In 1908, Erik Salomonsen's name was changed to Erik Homberger, and in 1911 Erik was officially adopted by his stepfather.
The development of identity seems to have been one of Erikson's greatest concerns in his own life as well as in his theory. As an older adult, he wrote about his adolescent “identity confusion” in his European days. “My identity confusion,” he wrote was at times on “the borderline between neurosis and adolescent psychosis.” Erikson’s daughter writes that her father’s “real psychoanalytic identity” was not established until he “replaced his stepfather’s surname [Homberger] with a name of his own invention [Erikson].”
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