Kirjahaku

Erik H. Erikson is recognized as one of the world’s leading figures in the field of psychoanalysis and human development. His ideas about the stages of development, the sources of identity, and the interdependence of individual growth and historical change revolutionized our understanding of the nature and course of psychological growth. Erikson, whose work first described the now familiar concepts of "identity crisis" and "life cycle," provided an unprecedented framework for considering the individual psyche within society and culture. Unveiling a dynamic process of psychological development, he emphasized the tendency toward growth and the integration of multiple influences—the biological, social, psychological, cultural, and historical. With writings from Erikson’s entire career, including major work from Childhood and Society, Insight and Responsibility, Young Man Luther, and Gandhi’s Truth, this invaluable reader charts the influence of Erikson’s thinking in the areas of child psychology, development through the lifespan, leadership, and moral growth.

In the first lecture, entitled "The Founders: Jeffersonion Action and Faith," Erikson uses selected themes from Jefferson's life to illustrate some principles of psychohistory. In the second lecture, "The Inheritors: Modern Insight and Foresight," Erikson applied his main concepts to the problems of ongoing history. The title of the lectures contains one such concept. "New identity" is the result of radical historical change and is here meant to characterize the emerging American identity as first embodied in such men as Jefferson. Erikson first explores certain themes in his examination of the emerging American identity during Jefferson's time. He then attempts to relate the Jeffersonian themes to contemporary problems of repression and suppression, of moralistic vindication, and true liberation by insight. Finally, Erikson maintains that now that children will be born by the privileged choice of parental persons, an adult environment fitting the living and the to-be-living becomes an ethical necessity. There is no question that this work ranks among Erikson's most challenging and seminal books.

A Western psychoanalyst and historian presents a detailed examination of the philosophies accepted by Gandhi and his attempts to convert the British through nonviolence

In this classic psychobiography, Erik H. Erikson brings his renowned insights on human development and the identity crisis to bear on the mighty figure of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther.

The original and vastly influential ideas of Erik H. Erikson underlie much of our understanding of human development. His insights into the interdependence of the individuals' growth and historical change, his now-famous concepts of identity, growth, and the life cycle, have changed the way we perceive ourselves and society. Widely read and cited, his works have won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Combining the insights of clinical psychoanalysis with a new approach to cultural anthropology, Childhood and Society deals with the relationships between childhood training and cultural accomplishment, analyzing the infantile and the mature, the modern and the archaic elements in human motivation. It was hailed upon its first publication as "a rare and living combination of European and American thought in the human sciences" (Margaret Mead, The American Scholar). Translated into numerous foreign languages, it has gone on to become a classic in the study of the social significance of childhood.

This book collects three early papers that—along with Childhood and Society—many consider the best introduction to Erikson's theories. "Ego Development and Historical Change" is a selection of extensive notes in which Erikson first undertook to relate to each other observations on groups studied on field trips and on children studied longitudinally and clinically. These notes are representative of the source material used for Childhood and Society. "Growth and Crises of the Health Personality" takes Erikson beyond adolescence, into the critical stages of the whole life cycle. In the third and last essay, Erikson deals with "The Problem of Ego Identity" successively from biographical, clinical, and social points of view—all dimensions later pursued separately in his work.

Identity, Erikson writes, is an unfathomable as it is all-pervasive. It deals with a process that is located both in the core of the individual and in the core of the communal culture. As the culture changes, new kinds of identity questions arise Erikson comments, for example, on issues of social protest and changing gender roles that were particular to the 1960s. Representing two decades of groundbreaking work, the essays are not so much a systematic formulation of theory as an evolving report that is both clinical and theoretical. The subjects range from "creative confusion" in two famous lives the dramatist George Bernard Shaw and the philosopher William James to the connection between individual struggles and social order. "Race and the Wider Identity" and the controversial "Womanhood and the Inner Space" are included in the collection."

Among the topics covered are: Freud's discovery that the human mind can only be studied through a partnership between observer and observed; how clinical evidence is made up of a unique mixture of subjective and objective; an observation on the way issues of identity affect not only individuals but classes of people; and an examination of the links between ego formation and institutions and traditions. Erikson also discusses the origins of ethics and looks at psychiatry as the pragmatic Western version of the universal journey to self-awareness.

This collection of his writings reflects the evolution of his ideas over the course of 50 years, beginning with his earliest experiences in psychoanalysis in Vienna. The papers cover a wide spectrum of topics, from children's play and child psychoanalysis to the dreams of adults, cross-cultural observations, young adulthood and the life cycle. The text also contains reminiscences about colleagues such as Anna Freud and Ruth Benedict who played important roles in Erikson's life and work.

Erickson postulates that a space-time orientation provided by a viable worldview is, complimentary to the inner work of the individual psyche and is attuned to its multiple functions. In a central chapter, the author links the phylogeny and the ontogeny of worldviews by describing stages in the ritualization of everyday life—that is, the interplay of customs (including the use of language) with from birth to death convey and confirm the "logic" of the visions predominant or contending in a society. He emphasizes the playful and yet compelling power of viable ritualization to connect individual growth with the maintenance of a vital institutions; but he also illustrates the fateful tendency of human interplay to turn into self-deception and collusion, of ritualization to become deadly ritualism—and of visions to end in nightmares of alienation and distraction. Erickson advocates the pooling of interdisciplinary insights in order to clarify the conscious and unconscious motivation which works for or against the more universal and more insightful worldview essential in a technological age.

Erik H. Erikson hører til de centrale skikkelser i amerikansk psykoanalyse, og hans Barnet og samfundet er en klassiker på sit felt. Mens Freud betonede seksualitetens betydning i den tidlige barndom, lægger Erikson vægt på den psyko-sociale udvikling, dvs. samspillet mellem følelser og behov på den ene side og opdragelse og menneskelige relationer på den anden. Med eksempler fra oprindelige nordamerikanere viser Erikson, hvordan individet og det psykiske liv formes af de sociale og kulturelle omstændigheder, og i bogens sidste del gennemgår han systematisk Jeg’ets udvikling fra oplevelsen af fundamental tillid til selvstændig integritet. Barnet og samfundet udkom første gang på dansk i 1971 og genudgives nu i Hans Reitzels Forlags serie Klassikere.

Erik H. Erikson er, takket være sin store indsigt og sin levende stil, blevet en af de mest læste af de moderne psykoanalytiske forfattere. Han havde i mange år sit virke ved amerikanske universiteter og forskningsinstitutioner, bl.a. som professor i psykiatri og Human Development ved Harvard University. I Identitet – ungdom og kriser sammenfatter og videreudvikler Erikson sine teorier om identiteten i et foranderligt samfund, her med fokus på ungdommen. Der redegøres grundigt og med mange eksempler for de unges identitetsdannelse og -problemer, og Erikson leverer interessante bidrag til en forståelse af såvel køns- som raceidentitet. Identitet – ungdom og kriser udkom første gang på dansk i 1971 og genudgives nu i Hans Reitzels Forlags serie Klassikere.

Bogen redegør grundigt og med mange eksempler for de unges identitetsdannelse og problemerne forbundet hermed. Giver samtidig væsentlige bidrag til en forståelse af såvel køns- som raceidentitet.