Shelby Hackett
PSYC 4315.N1
Dr. Edwards
11/21/17
Erik Erikson: Life and Work
Each person is unique. From physical attributes and genetic codes to the way a person
interacts and responds to the stimuli from the world around them, it is clear that no two people
are exactly the same. The road to understanding why and how a person’s characteristics comes to
be and holistically develops into an individual’s personality is still largely a mystery. However,
there have been many that have dedicated their lives to attempting to understand this great
mystery. Erik Erikson influenced psychoanalysis and the culture of his time in many profound
ways. His theory of personality and how it develops is perhaps one of the most holistic, yet
complicated approaches to understanding this topic. Commonly known as “The Life-Span
Approach”, Erikson proposes that personality is something that is constantly developing from
conception to death.
It is to no one’s surprise that many who theorize in the field of psychology and
specifically personality psychology, have suffered a great deal of trauma and encountered many
crises. Erikson is no exception. He was born to Karla Abrahamsen, a wealthy Jewish woman
from Copenhagen. She gave birth to Erik in Frankfurt, Germany. Although Karla was married,
her husband went missing not long after their wedding and she conceived Erik out of wedlock
(Schultz and Shultz 160). In 1905, Karla remarried a Jewish pediatrician, Dr. Theodore
Homburger. Erik did not know that Homburger was not his biological father until later in his life,
however kept the surname Homburger until he became an American citizen in his late thirties. It
was then that he changed his name to Erik Homburger Erikson. Karla refused to disclose who
Erikson’s biological father was.
Erikson’s crisis of identity did not stop just at his name. During his school years Erikson
had a very difficult time fitting in with his peers. Although he came from Danish decent, he
counted himself German because of where he grew up. However, because his mother and
stepfather were both Jewish, he was not welcomed with the German school kids. He was
excluded from his Jewish classmates because he did not look like a Jew. Erickson was a tall boy
with Aryan features. Academics were not his strong suite either. With only a run-of-the-mill
report card Erikson attempted to create an identity for himself through art after his high school
graduation.
Erikson set off on a quest to discover himself through art and experiencing the world. He
traveled much of Europe and was self-described as “morbidly sensitive and neurotic, even close
to psychotic” (Schultz and Schultz 160). All of his soul searching returned itself relatively
empty. Erikson was deeply grieved by the abandonment of his biological father. As expressed by
his daughter, Sue in 2005, “He struggled with a depressive tendency all this life” (Bloland 52,
71). It was clear throughout Erikson’s life that he implored for the acceptance and security that
he never received in his childhood and adolescent years. It was at the age of twenty-five when
Erikson was asked to go to Vienna to teach at a school for the children of those seeing Freud and
his friends’ children. Erikson accepted the offer and it was at this time that his professional
career took life that his identity took life as well. During his time there, Erikson was analyzed by
Anna Freud regularly for three years (Schultz and Schultz 161). It was in 1929, that Erikson
found some stability that he had longed for. While at a masquerade ball in Vienna, Joan Serson
and Erikson met and fell in love. When Serson told Erikson that she became pregnant with his
child, in his typical and boarder line neurotic behavior, Erikson refused to marry her. He
protested that he was not cut out for the commitment, even though he unknowingly desired it.
However, he also believed that his parents would not approve because she herself was not
Jewish. After the intervention of wise friends who showed Erikson that if he did not marry Joan
that he would be repeating the cycle that he was born into (Schultz and Schultz). Finally, Joan
and Erik got married, once in the synagogue, the Protestant church, and lastly in a civil
ceremony.
In the early 1930’s, due to the Nazi’s rise to power Erikson and his family immigrated
back to Denmark and finally to the United States where he worked with the treatment of children
and emotionally troubled youth. With the intent to get his Ph.D., Erikson studied at Harvard for a
brief period. However, dropped out after failing one of his first courses (Schultz and Schultz
