30 Best Erik Erikson Quotes From The Developmental Psychologist
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Famously known as Erikson, this German-born psychologist lived an influential life until May of 1994.
Erik Erikson is best known for introducing the term and the catchphrase 'identity crisis'. Born in 1902, Erik Erikson died a 91-year-old man with this term as a part of his famous theory of psychosocial development.
Erik Erikson was known for his work as one of the popular psychologists of the 20th century, and had served as a respectable professor at many colleges too.
He was an ego psychologist who developed the most popular and influential theories of psychosocial development: divided into eight stages spread across one's lifetime from being a baby to an adult.
This explains the way a human being develops based on their ego and identity, facing crisis at every stage in life. Erik Erikson's theory is important as it provides a strong outline to view one's development throughout their entire lifespan.
Subsequently allowing us to focus on the social nature of human beings and the vital influence that social relationships have on the development process.
Below are some quotations on identity, developmental psychology quotes as well as quotes from Erik Erikson that you may like to share. For more psychologist quotes, check Sigmund Freud quotes and Alfred Adler quotes.
Famous Quotes By Erik Erikson
Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson made many influential statements as a developmental psychologist. This list of Erik Erikson quotes is perfect for your search on psychologist quotes about human identity, life, and more.
1. "The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love, and play."
- Erik Erikson.
2. "If life is to be sustained, hope must remain."
- Erik Erikson, 'Insight And Responsibility', 1964.
3. "Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that the better for us all."
- Erik Erikson.
4. "There will exist a well-informed and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child's spirit; for such mutilation undercuts the life principle of trust, without which every human act, may it feel ever so good... is prone to perversion by destructive forms of conscientiousness."
- Erik Erikson, 'Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History', 1958.
5. "None was to touch any one's property on the way."
- Erik Erikson.
6. "Personality, too, is destiny."
- Erik Erikson.
7. "The American feels too rich in his opportunities for free expression that he often no longer knows what he is free from."
- Erik Erikson.
8. "The way you, 'take history', is also a way of 'making history'."
- Erik Erikson.
Erik Erikson Quotes On Child Development
Children grow mostly through the first four stages. These Erik Erikson quotes below, share the ideas of development after being born.
9. "Do not mistake a child for his symptom."
- Erik Erikson, 'Childhood And Society', 1950.
10. "Children accruing ego identity gains real strength only from wholehearted and consistent recognition of real accomplishment, that is, an achievement that has meaning in their culture."
- Erik Erikson, 'Identity And The Life Cycle', 1959.
11. "The playing adult steps sideward into another reality; the playing child advances forward to new stages of mastery."
- Erik Erikson, 'Childhood And Society', 1950.
12. "You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems."
- Erik Erikson.
13. "Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death."
- Erik Erikson, 'Childhood And Society', 1950.
14. "Play is the most natural method of self-healing that childhood affords."
- Erik Erikson.
15. "There is in every child at every stage a new miracle of vigorous unfolding."
- Erik Erikson, 'Childhood And Society', 1950.
Erik Erikson Quotes On Identity
Erik Erikson had mastered his study in psychoanalysis and history of life, and development through the crises. Check out this list of famous Erik Erikson quotes that you would like to share with your group of psychoanalyst social groups.
16. "The sense of identity provides the ability to experience one's self as something that has continuity and sameness, and to act accordingly."
- Erik Erikson, 'Childhood And Society', 1950.
17. "Doubt is the brother of shame."
- Erik Erikson, 'Identity Youth And Crisis', 1968.
18. "Nobody likes to be found out, not even one who has made ruthless confession a part of his profession."
- Erik Erikson.
19. "It is true that the first discipline encountered by a young man is the one he must somehow identify with unless he chooses to remain unidentified in his years of need."
- Erik Erikson, 'Young Man Luther: A Study In Psychoanalysis And History', 1958.
20. "He who is ashamed would like to force the world not to look at him, not to notice his exposure. He would like to destroy the eyes of the world."
- Erik Erikson.
21. "In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity."
- Erik Erikson, 'Identity Youth And Crisis', 1968.
22. "The discipline however, may turn out to be poor ideological fare; poor in view of what, as an individual, he has not yet derived from his childhood problems, and poor in view of the irreversible decisions which begin to crowd in on him."
- Erik Erikson, 'Young Man Luther: A Study In Psychoanalysis And History', 1958.
Popular Erik Erikson Quotes As The Psychoanalyst
Erik Erikson and his quotes are popular amongst psychologist study-circles. If you're looking for something to share within your psychoanalyst-groups, check out this list that is full of popular Erik Erikson quotes:
23. "The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others."
- Erik Erikson.
24. "Deep down nobody in his right mind can visualize his own existence without assuming that he has always lived and will live hereafter."
- Erik Erikson.
25. "Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive."
- Erik Erikson, 'Insight And Responsibility', 1964.
26. "The fact that human conscience remains partially infantile throughout life is the core of human tragedy."
- Erik Erikson.
27. "You can actively flee, then, and you can actively stay put."
- Erik Erikson.
28. "And as was Gandhi’s wont, he would not only insist on hygienic and social restraints but would preach to this group the basic ethical rules for the forthcoming march: None was to touch any one’s property on the way."
- Erik Erikson.
29. "You've got to learn to accept the law of life, and face the fact that we disintegrate slowly."
- Erik Erikson.
30. "Adolescents need the freedom to choose, but not so much freedom that they cannot, in fact, make a choice."
- Erik Erikson.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Erik Erikson quotes then why not take a look at psychologist Maslow quotes, or Albert Ellis quotes?
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With a Master of Arts in English, Rajnandini has pursued her passion for the arts and has become an experienced content writer. She has worked with companies such as Writer's Zone and has had her writing skills recognized by publications such as The Telegraph. Rajnandini is also trilingual and enjoys various hobbies such as music, movies, travel, philanthropy, writing her blog, and reading classic British literature.
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