Erik H. Erikson

Young man Luther : a study in psychoanalysis and history

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

Youth: Fidelity and Diversity

The subject of this paper is a certain strength inherent in the age of youth. I call it the sense of and the capacity for Fidelity. Such a strength, to me, is not a moral trait to be acquired by individual effort. Rather, I believe it to be part of the human equipment evolved with socio-genetic evolution. This assertion I could not undertake to defend here; nor could I make plausible the fact that, in the schedule of individual growth, Fidelity could not mature earlier in life and must not, in the crises of youth, fail its time of ascendance if human adaptation is to remain intact. Nor (to complete the list of limitations) could I review the other stages of life and the specific strengths and weaknesses contributed by each to man’s precarious adaptation. We can take only a brief look at the stage of life which immediately precedes youth, the school age, and then turn to youth itself. I regret this; for even as one can understand oneself only by looking at and away from oneself, one can recognize the meaning of a stage only by studying it in the context of all the others.

Reality and Actuality an Address.

NE OF THE STORIES of Freud’s preanalytic years which assume a mythological quality in our training is the event at one of ,o Charcot’s evening receptions when the master during a bit of shop talk about hysteria in women “suddenly broke out with great animation: ‘iIIais, d a m des cas pareils c’est totijotirs la chose ge‘nitnle, totijours . . . totrjotirs. . . toiijours’; . . . I know, that for a moment I was almost paralysed with amazement and said to myself: ‘TVell, but if he knows that, why does he never say so?’ But the impression was soon forgotten; brain anatomy . . . absorbed all my interest.” (14). Since then we have come full cycle. Freud’s elucidation of “la chose ge‘nitale” has revolutionized psychology, and this Association has become the representative of that revolution in this country. Heirs of radical innovation, however, carry a double burden: they must do together what the founder did in lonely years and also strive to keep ahead of the habituations which result from success. They may well, at intervals, ask themselves what they have come to know and what they on oc

The Search for Identity

asion say with “much animation,” without pursuing i t with the momentum of discovery. One such item, I submit, is our knowledge of human strength. TVe have all heard psychoanalysts (including ourselves), in private conversations or in unguarded moments of clinical discussion, describe with wonder the evidences for some patient’s regained

Childhood and Society

RATHER DRAMATIC EVIDENCE EXISTS in Luther’s notes on these lectures [on the Psalms] for the fact that while he was working on the Psalms Luther came to formulate those insights later ascribed to his revelation in the tower, the date of which scholars have tried in vain to establish with certainty. As Luther was reviewing in his mind Romans 1:17, the last sentence suddenly assumed a clarity which pervaded his whole being and “opened the door of paradise” to him: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” The power of these words lay in a new perception of the space-time of life and eternity. Luther saw that God’s justice is not consigned to a future day of judgment based on our record on earth when He will have the “last word.” Instead, this justice is in us, in the here and now; for, if we will only perceive it, God has given us faith to live by, and we can perceive it by understanding the Word which is Christ. We will discuss later the circumstances leading to this perception; what interests us first of all is its relation to the lectures on the Psalms.