In this study of Mahatma Gandhi, psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson explores how Gandhi succeeded in mobilizing the Indian people both spiritually and politically as he became the revolutionary innovator of militant non-violence and India became the motherland of large-scale civil disobedience.

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

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.

The last stage, old age, challenges the individual to rework the past while remaining involved in the present. The authors begin this work with their theory of life's stages through old age. In Part two, they discuss their interviews with twenty-nine octogenarians, on whom life history data has been collected for over fifty years. Part three is a discussion of the life history of the protagonist in Ingmar Bergman's film Wild Strawberries. In Part four, "Old age in our society," the authors offer suggestions for "vital involvement." Erik H. Erikson is winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the...

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.

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...

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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.

Just as Erikson's notion of the identity crisis has been obscured and confused as it has passed into everyday speech, so too have glib popularizers misused his notions of psychobiography and psychohistory. Thus, this book is of supreme importance, not merely to set the record straight, but more especially to make these vital ideas, central to our time, fully available "To deal with life history and history psychoanalytically," Erikson points out, "means to engage in a kind of circular chronology: our inquiry always points to selected periods in the past which, in throwing new light on the...