Biography+Erik+Erikson

__** Biography Erik Erikson **__

**After his father’s brief affair with his mother, Erik Erikson was born June 15, 1902. Abandoned, he was raised by a Jewish pediatrician who married his mother at three years of age. Erikson seemed to suffer an identity crisis, not knowing his real father and commonly going by Erik Homgurger instead of Erikson. He was considered the ideal Aryan appearance because of his blue eyes and blond hair, but was still teased over his stepfathers religion. Erikson decided not to attend college in his youth and instead took up painting**. **This move turned out to be a great step towards his true career. While in art school he was commissioned to draw portraits of** **Dorothy Burlinghams 4 children. Dorothy and her friend Anna Freud went on to convince Erikson to become a child analyses under her training. At first he rarely, met Freud who was currently suffering from mouth cancer at the time. And he had a difficult time relating to the other disciples because of his lack of PhD and feeling of being a servant for the master. Upon Hitler’s assumption of power he fled from Germany, and went with his wife to live in the United States. Where, he became the first child analyst in Boston. During this time he worked on books, analyst both poor and wealthy children, taught at the University of California and analyzed Hitler’s speeches during the war.** **Although being counted among the Freudians, Erikson’s and Freud’s views differed in some ways. He didn't believe that all dysfunction could be traced back to childhood experiences; if that was so then everything would be everyone else’s fault. He also disagreed with Freud when it came to the subject of women in psychology. Erikson did not view women as simply passive/ masochistic creatures, but intelligent and productive. Erikson was extremely dedicated in his discipleship to Freud and never declared that Freud was wrong on many things, even crediting some of his own ideas to Freud himself.** **After receiving an appointment at a psychoanalytic child’s center he went on to write, “Childhood and Society” making him famous. His interests were spread over a wide rage of area. He studied combat crises in troubled American soldiers in World War II, child-rearing practices among the Sioux in South Dakota and the Yurok along the Pacific Coast, and social behavior in India. Erikson was always concerned with the rapid social changes in America and wrote about issues such as the generation gap, racial tensions, juvenile delinquency, changing sexual roles, and the dangers of nuclear war. He went on to become a professor at Harvard University, campaigning for the rights of children and elderly and put an emphasis on people rather than nations.**
 * And to think he did all this // without // receiving a PhD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**
 * Erik Erikson died May12, 1994.**