Erik Erikson on Identity, Generativity, and Pseudospeciation: A Biographer's Perspective

Abstract

From 1950 through the 1970s, Erik H. Erikson was acknowledged as a major influence in American intellectual life as a thinker who shifted psychoanalysis towards social concerns. Three main interrelated topical areas concerned Erikson in his personal life and within a broader cultural perspective: the nature of personal identity, generativity in the life-cycle, and ‘pseudospeciation’ (an irrational propensity in homogeneous groups to deny the fact that humankind is obviously one species). The author observes that from the mid-1970s Erikson's reputation as a major public intellectual suffered a decline. Recently, however, there has been a revival of interest in his ideas for the explanation of incidents of adolescent violence. A biographical section ‘A critical comment on sources’ concludes the paper.