ERIKSON’S EIGHT STAGES ERIKSON’S EIGHT STAGES UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS NOVEMBER 27, 2001 Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 15, 1902. There is a little mystery about his heritage: His biological father was an unnamed Danish man who abandoned Erik’s mother before he was born. His mother was a young Jewish woman who raised him alone for the first three years of his life. The development of his identity seems to have been …showed first 75 words of 2040 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2040 total…the human life span. In his theory, eight stages of development unfold as we go through the life span. Each stage consists of a crisis that must be faced. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced potential. The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be. “Was du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast, Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen.”