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I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Identity Crisis” before. It’s thought of as a conflict of self and society and its introduction came from one of the most famous psychoanalyst of the 20th century.

Sigmund Freud is probably the most familiar name that comes to mind when one thinks of famous psychologists. His basic foundation theories of instinct, phallic symbol obsession and oedipal complexes are prevalent in almost every artistic aspect of our culture. However, it was a friend and fellow psychoanalyst of Freud’s, Erik Erickson, who created one of the major theories that open a window to the development of everything that makes us who we are on the inside. It is referred to as Erickson’s Theory of Human Development and it simplifies the complex topic of human personality.

First, let’s talk about the man himself. Erik Homberger was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1902. The conditions under which he began life give a great deal of insight into his obsession with identity. He was challenged with it from the stat. His parents weren’t married and his Danish father left before Erik was born. His Jewish mother married Erik’s pediatrician when he was three. Erik had Nordic features; he was tall, blond and had blue eyes. Neither the Jewish children at temple nor the German children at school accepted him.

As he grew up, psychology and art began to interest Erik and led him to various institutes including one where he was psychoanalyzed by Anna Freud, wife of Sigmund. Both later became close friends to Erickson. When the Nazis came to power, Erik moved to Boston where he studied child psychoanalysis and was influenced by many psychologists and anthropologists Mead, but many famous psychologists and anthropologists.

He is considered a Freudian ego-psychologist, meaning he takes the basic foundation of Freud’s theories, but veers away by focus on social and cultural orientation. Erickson’s theory closely ties personality growth with parental and societal values. His 1950 book, Childhood and Society, is considered a classic in its field.

There are eight stages of human development, each focusing on a different conflict that we need to solve in order to development successfully into the next stage of our lives. The idea is that if we don’t resolve each stage or we choose the wrong of two choices, our ability to deal with the consecutive stages is impaired and the failure will return to us at some point later in life.

Stage One: Oral Sensory

Ages: Birth To 12-18 Months

Conflict: Trust vs Mistrust

The infant’s bond with their primary caregiver is about trust and love. The connection with that person (usually Mommy) allows them to feel like they are safe and can rely on the person who is basically the only thing they know. It’s about touch and being there and can be seen in that tender stare they give you as you feed them.

Stage Two: Muscular Anal

Ages: 18 Months To 3 Years

Conflict: Autonomy vs Doubt

This stage focuses on self control and self confidence and Erickson gives toilet training as the greatest example of this conflict. He also points out that this is the stage where an overprotective parent can do the most damage. The child wants autonomy. We’re all familiar with the two hour wait because they have to tie their own shoes. We wait because in this stage, failure to reinforce these efforts will lead the child to doubt themselves and your trust in them.

Stage Three: Locomotor

Ages: 3 To 6 Years

Conflict: Initiative vs Guilt

This is all about independence and letting the child exert his/her initiative. This is the stage where carrying your car keys or helping Mommy in any way possible is very important. They are developing a sense of responsibility and limitations. They will try to do things they can’t and the response the parent gives them, encouragement or refusal, will allow the child to understand limitations without guilt.

Stage Four: Latency

Ages: 6 To 12 Years

Conflict: Industry vs Inferiority

This is about completion. Before this stage, we’re all familiar with the child beginning to do something, but then snap; he drops it and is on to something else. In this stage, completion and the pleasure it brings becomes crucial. This is greatly influenced by their introduction to school beyond day care. It is the coming together of mental and physical capabilities as well. Parents need to encourage their child to handle the different experiences of a home atmosphere and the atmosphere at school among others.

Stage Five: Adolescence

Ages: 12 To 18 Years

Conflict: Identity vs Role Confusion

This stage could be a book in itself; the teenage years. They are hard on everyone, but especially the child herself. They are aware that they will become a contributor to society (industry) and the search for who they are drives their actions and thoughts. The desire to know what it is they want and believe separate from what they’ve adopted from their parents is crucial to their self confidence.

Stage Six: Young Adulthood

Ages: 19 To 40 Years

Conflict: Psychosocial Development

Love relationships dominate this stage for all of us and relies heavily on our ability to solve the conflicts faced in stage five. Can you be intimate? Can you be open? Can you commit? Intimacy is referred to as the ability to make a personal commitment and doesn’t necessarily mean sex. Personal commitment, met with mutual satisfaction, make this a successful stage. If unable to handle this stage, an adult will resort to isolation.

Stage Seven: Middle Adulthood

Ages: 40 To 65 Years

Conflict: Generativity vs Stagnation

The words are getting bigger, but stay with me. Generativity is our ability to care for someone else which is mostly displayed in parenting. Specifically, it’s the ability to direct someone into society and the next generation. We don’t focus on death, but we begin to understand that we are high in the order of society and owe society something. If we haven’t dealt with our previous conflicts, we become stagnant and our lives won’t exhibit anything we can look back on.

Stage Eight: Maturity

Ages: 65 to Death

Conflict: Ego Integrity vs Despair

This is when we begin to reflect on our lives, accepting it for what it was. If we have done well in previous stages, especially stage seven, we can feel a sense of fulfillment and accept death as an unavoidable reality with dignity. If we haven’t done well, we can be filled with regret, despair over the time running out and fear of death.

When you read through the stages, it’s impossible not to identify them as you’ve experienced them or as you see your children experiencing them. However, Erickson’s theory is not without critics. Many say that it is too focused on infancy and childhood and isn’t very helpful for later in life. Others say it really applies to boys and not girls using Erickson’s belief (Freudian) that boys and girls naturally develop different personalities.

In general, Erickson’s Theory of Human Development is widely accepted and plays a major role in all human and psychological development studies and theories. The best advice is to use the theory as a framework or map for understanding and identifying what issues/conflicts unresolved lead to current behavior and preparing for the stages to come.

About The Author

Angela Winters is a freelance writer, journalist and national bestselling author of over twelve novels and short stories.

Eating is controlled by many factors, including appetite, food
availability, family, peer, and cultural practices. Attempts at
voluntary control. Dieting to a body weight leaner than needed
for health is highly promoted by current fashion trends, sales
campaigns for special foods, and in some activities and
professions.

Eating disorders involve serious disturbances in eating
behavior, such as extreme and unhealthy reduction of food intake
or severe overeating, as well as feelings of distress or extreme
concern about body shape or weight. Researchers are
investigating how and why initially voluntary behaviors, such as
eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual, at some
point move beyond control in some people and develop into an
eating disorder.

Studies on the basic biology of appetite control and its
alteration by prolonged overeating or starvation have uncovered
enormous complexity, but in the long run have the potential to
lead to new pharmacologic treatments for eating disorders.

Eating disorders are not due to a failure of will or behavior;
rather, they are real, treatable medical illnesses in which
certain maladaptive patterns of eating take on a life of their
own. The main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and
bulimia nervosa.

A third type, binge-eating disorder, has been suggested but has
not yet been approved as a formal psychiatric diagnosis. Eating
disorders frequently develop during adolescence or early
adulthood, but some reports indicate their onset can occur
during childhood or later in adulthood.

Eating disorders frequently co-occur with other psychiatric
disorders such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety
disorders. In addition, people who suffer from eating disorders
can experience a wide range of physical health complications.
Including serious heart conditions and kidney failure which may
lead to death. Recognition of eating disorders as real and
treatable diseases, therefore, is critically important.

Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating
disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with
anorexia or bulimia and an estimated 35 percent of those with
binge-eating disorder are male.

Anorexia Nervosa

An estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of females suffer from anorexia
nervosa in their lifetime. Symptoms of anorexia nervosa include:

Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally
normal weight for age and height.

Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though
underweight.

Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is
experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on
self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low
body weight.

Infrequent or absent menstrual periods (in females who have
reached puberty)

People with this disorder see themselves as overweight even
though they are dangerously thin. The process of eating becomes
an obsession. Unusual eating habits develop, such as avoiding
food and meals, picking out a few foods and eating these in
small quantities, or carefully weighing and portioning food.
People with anorexia may repeatedly check their body weight.

Many engage in other techniques to control their weight, such as
intense and compulsive exercise, or purging by means of vomiting
and abuse of laxatives, enemas, and diuretics. Girls with
anorexia often experience a delayed onset of their first
menstrual period.

The course and outcome of anorexia nervosa vary across
individuals: some fully recover after a single episode; some
have a fluctuating pattern of weight gain and relapse; and
others experience a chronically deteriorating course of illness
over many years.

The mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated
at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 percent per
decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death
rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the
general population. The most common causes of death are
complications of the disorder, such as cardiac arrest or
electrolyte imbalance, and suicide.

Bulimia Nervosa

An estimated 1.1 percent to 4.2 percent of females have bulimia
nervosa in their lifetime. Symptoms of bulimia nervosa include:

Recurrent episodes of binge eating, characterized by eating an
excessive amount of food within a discrete period of time and by
a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode
Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to
prevent weight gain, such as self-induced vomiting or misuse of
laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other medications (purging);
fasting; or excessive exercise.

The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both
occur, on average, at least twice a week for 3 months
Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight
Because purging or other compensatory behavior follows the
binge-eating episodes, people with bulimia usually weigh within
the normal range for their age and height.

However, like individuals with anorexia, they may fear gaining
weight, desire to lose weight, and feel intensely dissatisfied
with their bodies. People with bulimia often perform the
behaviors in secrecy, feeling disgusted and ashamed when they
binge, yet relieved once they purge.

Binge-Eating Disorder

Community surveys have estimated that between 2 percent and 5
percent of Americans experience binge-eating disorder in a
6-month period. Symptoms of binge-eating disorder include:

Recurrent episodes of binge eating, characterized by eating an
excessive amount of food within a discrete period of time and by
a sense of lack of control over eating during the episode. The
binge-eating episodes are associated with at least 3 of the
following: eating much more rapidly than normal; eating until
feeling uncomfortably full.

Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry;
eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is
eating; feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very
guilty after overeating Marked distress about the binge-eating
behavior.

The binge eating occurs, on average, at least 2 days a week for
6 months

The binge eating is not associated with the regular use of
inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging, fasting,
excessive exercise)

People with binge-eating disorder experience frequent episodes
of out-of-control eating, with the same binge-eating symptoms as
those with bulimia. The main difference is that individuals with
binge-eating disorder do not purge their bodies of excess
calories. Therefore, many with the disorder are overweight for
their age and height. Feelings of self-disgust and shame
associated with this illness can lead to bingeing again,
creating a cycle of binge eating.

Treatment Strategies

Eating disorders can be treated and a healthy weight restored.
The sooner these disorders are diagnosed and treated, the better
the outcomes are likely to be. Because of their complexity,
eating disorders require a comprehensive treatment plan
involving medical care and monitoring, psychosocial
interventions, nutritional counseling and, when appropriate,
medication management. At the time of diagnosis, the clinician
must determine whether the person is in immediate danger and
requires hospitalization.

Treatment of anorexia calls for a specific program that involves
three main phases: (1) restoring weight lost to severe dieting
and purging;

(2) treating psychological disturbances such as distortion of
body image, low self-esteem, and interpersonal conflicts; and

(3) achieving long-term remission and rehabilitation, or full
recovery. Early diagnosis and treatment increases the treatment
success rate. Use of psychotropic medication in people with
anorexia should be considered only after weight gain has been
established.

Certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have
been shown to be helpful for weight maintenance and for
resolving mood and anxiety symptoms associated with anorexia.

The acute management of severe weight loss is usually provided
in an inpatient hospital setting, where feeding plans address
the person’s medical and nutritional needs. In some cases,
intravenous feeding is recommended.

Once malnutrition has been corrected and weight gain has begun,
psychotherapy (often cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal
psychotherapy) can help people with anorexia overcome low
self-esteem and address distorted thought and behavior patterns.
Families are sometimes included in the therapeutic process.

The primary goal of treatment for bulimia is to reduce or
eliminate binge eating and purging behavior. To this end,
nutritional rehabilitation, psychosocial intervention, and
medication management strategies are often employed.

Establishment of a pattern of regular, non-binge meals,
improvement of attitudes related to the eating disorder,
encouragement of healthy but not excessive exercise, and
resolution of co-occurring conditions such as mood or anxiety
disorders are among the specific aims of these strategies.

Individual psychotherapy (especially cognitive-behavioral or
interpersonal psychotherapy), group psychotherapy that uses a
cognitive-behavioral approach, and family or marital therapy
have been reported to be effective.

Psychotropic medications, primarily antidepressants such as the
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), have been found
helpful for people with bulimia, particularly those with
significant symptoms of depression or anxiety, or those who have
not responded adequately to psychosocial treatment alone.

These medications also may help prevent relapse. The treatment
goals and strategies for binge-eating disorder are similar to
those for bulimia, and studies are currently evaluating the
effectiveness of various interventions.

People with eating disorders often do not recognize or admit
that they are ill. As a result, they may strongly resist getting
and staying in treatment. Family members or other trusted
individuals can be helpful in ensuring that the person with an
eating disorder receives needed care and rehabilitation. For
some people, treatment may be long term.

When you are depressed, you stop doing things. Beyond eating correctly, or sleeping right, you stop doing things that you once enjoyed. If you enjoy knitting, or reading, or cooking, you might stop doing those things. You might find it hard to get back into these habits as you move deeper into depression. The reality is that these are symptoms of depression and being able to overcome this symptom and return to your hobbies is a way to get better. But how do you do that?

The first step is to pick a hobby that you wish to return to. Don’t try for all of them at once, start with one. Take some time to think about what made you enjoy that hobby to begin with. Then start it. If it was playing music, grab your instrument. If it was knitting, go for the needles. Just start. Get back into your groove and see how quickly it all comes back to you, the enjoyment of it as much as anything else.

Then look for groups that you can join related to the hobby. Book clubs, knitting circles, cooking clubs, even an open-mic night. By going to these groups, you will be encouraged to continue your hobby because you will be getting positive feedback. After you have gotten yourself energized from the first hobby, start a second. Move forward, making that progress. Pretty soon you will be back in the swing of things like you were to begin with.

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