Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development — They Don’t Always Happen in Order
The following is a reaction to a prompt included in the curriculum of a collegiate Theories of Personality course. The assignment comprised a reaction to the article Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychological Development that was published on a popular psychology website. The prompt asked for an analysis of three of Eriksson’s stages and a discussion of how an alternative framework could be used to explain the same psychological phenomena highlighted in Erikson’s theory.
According to the article Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychological Development by Saul McLeod (SimplyPsychology.com), Erikson’s theory “maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychological development, from infancy to adulthood” (McLeod, 2018). I disagree that these stages proceed in a predictable and chronological order across the lifespan. The psychological crises presented in this theory can occur in any chronological order and may even repeat in converging cycles based on the timing of impactful life events and new learning.
It is possible that I just haven’t cultivated the virtues outlined by Erikson and therefore possess “a more unhealthy personality and sense of self” (McLeod, 2018). However, I would prefer not to refer to the cognitive solutions to Erikson’s psychological conflicts as “virtues”. The patterns of cognition and affect that we manipulate to resolve psychological crises are, at their roots, networks of synaptic potentiation. Thus, they are subject to dissolution at any point when disrupted by traumatic life events (negatively) or individual enlightenment (positively).
Trauma and enlightenment represent effects on cognition that are significant enough to disturb previous neurological patterns, forcing an individual to recreate a worldview that is more substantial and sustainable.
Psychological crisis comes and goes. And we may face any or all of Erikson’s stages at any moment; forced to resolve the crisis afresh with new patterns of cognition, affect, and behavior.
Stage 1 — Basic Virtue: Hope
In Erikson’s first phase, an unsuccessful resolution of the crisis results in a child who does “not have confidence in the world around them or in their abilities to influence events” (McLeod, 2018). If I asked the average well-adjusted adult if they have confidence in the world around them or in their ability to influence events, my guess is that they would modesty agree that they do not. Any delusion to the contrary is surely that of infantile psychology.
In fact, the ability to be at peace in an unpredictable and uncontrollable world rests in the acceptance of the harsh truth of universal entropy. When an individual has reckoned with this, they can create new psychological schemata to cope and find meaning. This might be done initially during the first stage of psychological development in infancy as Erikson suggests, but it will not be the last time an individual faces this crisis. Indeed, the ability to exist in the absurdity without clearly defined hope is a transcendent psychological strength.
Stage 3 — Basic Virtue: Purpose
The third phase is the conflict of initiative vs. guilt. Erikson says that this conflict is resolved with the virtue of purpose. This may be the case for some. But it is unrealistic to expect a self-constructed purpose to be a one-time fix. Purpose can evaporate when subjected to the heat of new knowledge and understanding. To say that this virtue is developed at such a young age is to weaken the strength of maturely developed purpose that likely occurs much later in the lifespan.
Given the intense control of my upbringing within a New Religious Movement, I was plagued with guilt for many years. This resulted from the lack of regulation of my mirror neurons in response to negative feedback from others (what some like to call “empathy). The resolution to this psychological crisis was not the virtuous ability to create purpose. Rather the resolution came from a sort of philanthropic sociopathy coupled with a determined effort to decrease the affective sensation of unbridled empathy in consciousness. With empathy thus reduced, one can leverage a utilitarian approach to decision-making.
Stage 8 — Basic Virtue: Wisdom
According to Erikson, the eighth phase results in wisdom and occurs post 65 years of age. In my experience, wisdom is not positively correlated with age. Anyone who comprehends the wisdom of a child and the foolishness of the delusional community elder is released from unchecked respect for the aged; a recipe for repeating the ills of humanity. Wisdom, like nature, evolves according to the laws of natural selection. As mutated phenomes survive into new species, so mutated memes of wisdom appear in the minds of those unaffected by the dulling forces of social influence. Memes that survive enter the meme-pool of wisdom. Children are wise without knowledge. Those deemed wise by the masses, usually just know how to self-present effectively. The true and rare sage has harnessed both of these strengths.
The true and rare sage both remembers the wisdom of the child and aquires the ability to teach it to the ones who have forgotten
As suggested in Erikson’s theory, I also vacillate between ego integrity and despair, depression, and hopelessness. In moments of transcendence, I can see both the successes of my life and the failures as part of a larger narrative of significance not only to myself but also to many others. This is the wisdom I seek. While I still struggle to define and broaden my acceptance of hope, will, purpose, competency, fidelity, love, and care, I actively pursue wisdom. Perhaps wisdom is a conglomerate of all the above virtues. Perhaps wisdom is the ability to live without such virtues.
I guess I’ll find out when I’m 65+.
Eighteen months ago, I picked up a copy of Jung’s The Practice of Psychotherapy (1966) at a thrift store. The copy was supplemented with annotations from an anonymous reader in 1982. The reader made notes connecting Jung’s theories to his own life’s occurrences. I found myself doing the same, not only with Jung’s theories but also with the extrapolations of the anonymous annotator. In one place, the annotator writes:
“6–29–82
Read this on a day when I’m feeling I’ve found grace in the desert. I like how Jung’s writings dovetail with my other spiritual readings”
Conversely, I found that Jung’s theories conflicted with the spiritual readings of my upbringing within a closed religious community. I particularly enjoyed Jung’s theories surrounding the individual. His necessity for meeting a client as an equal (Jung, 1966) foreshadowed Carl Roger’s client-centered psychotherapy. This Humanist approach does not view individuals as needing to be fixed, but as Rogers also ascertained, unique beings needing to be liberated into their life course of extraordinariness.
Jung emphasized the deconstruction of fantastic thinking. This deconstruction gradually leads to psychological maturity and balance. I hypothesize that such deconstructions may at pivotal moments across the lifespan run parallel with Erikson’s theory of developmental stages. Negotiating psychological crisis involves releasing the hold on idealized concepts and creating nuanced personal theories that facilitate future psychological balance. This processes no doubt occurs during the conflicts highlighted in Erickson’s framework. But this process of conflict and resolution can occur at any point in an individual’s life.
And reoccur.
References:
McCloud, Saul. (2018) Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retreived from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html
Jung, Carl. (1966) The Practice of Psychotherapy. Second Edition. Princeton University Press.
