Book
Identity: Youth and Crisis
Erikson's fullest statement of his theory of identity. It follows the formation of identity across the life cycle, describes the identity crisis of adolescence and its pathological forms, and develops the notion of the psychosocial moratorium, the delay of adult commitment that society grants the young. In its prologue Erikson recalls that the term identity crisis was first used during the Second World War for veterans at the Mount Zion Veterans' Rehabilitation Clinic in San Francisco who had lost their sense of personal sameness and continuity. Later chapters carry identity into the questions of the 1960s: race, gender and the youth movements of the decade.
Main ideas
- Identity is formed across the whole life cycle, with its decisive crisis in adolescence.
- The identity crisis has pathological forms, in which identity formation fails.
- Society grants youth a psychosocial moratorium in which adult commitments are put off while an identity is worked out.
- The term identity crisis arose in work with Second World War veterans who had lost their sense of personal sameness and continuity.
- Identity is bound up with race, gender and the youth movements of the 1960s.
What it shows
- 1946
Erik Erikson introduced Ego identity
Erikson first used the term ego identity in "Ego Development and Historical Change" (1946) and gave it its fullest early treatment in "The Problem of Ego Identity" (1956), both reprinted in Identity and the Life Cycle; Identity: Youth and Crisis (1968) is his summary statement.
- 1950
Erik Erikson introduced Identity crisis
Erikson coined the term during the Second World War for veterans at the Mount Zion Veterans' Rehabilitation Clinic in San Francisco who had lost their sense of sameness and continuity; he described the crisis as the fifth age in Childhood and Society and recalled the term's origin in the prologue to Identity: Youth and Crisis.
Erik Erikson introduced Psychosocial moratorium
Erikson described adolescence as a moratorium between childhood and adulthood granted by society, and in Young Man Luther (1958) read Luther's years in the monastery as such a moratorium.
Erik Erikson introduced Identity diffusion
Erikson described identity diffusion as the failure of identity formation in late adolescence, chiefly in "The Problem of Ego Identity" (1956), reprinted in Identity and the Life Cycle; he later preferred the term identity confusion.