Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson is famous psychoanalyst and ego psychologist in the early 20th Century whose work helped create interest and research in human development throughout he lifespan. He is best known for his famous theory of psychosocial development and the concept of the identity crisis. His theories continue to remain influential today and contributed to our understanding of personality development throughout life.
Erik Homburger Erikson was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. It has been thought that Erik Erikson's interest in his field of psychology may be linked back to what he went through as a child, such as being teased by other kids in school, his birth being a result of his mother's extramarital affair, and his father abandoning him and his mother. He was teased at school for being Nordic - tall, blonde, and blue-eyed and later was teased for being Jewish. This may have influenced his development of identity crisis, because may have once rejected his real identity and wanted to take on another to fit in.
Erikson's career was a successful and full filled one. He traveled through Europe and studied psychoanalysis under Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud's daughter) and earned a certificate from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. He then moved to the United States and taught a lot. Among many teaching positions he had, he was first offered and took a teaching position at Harvard Medical School and also had a private practice in child psychoanalysis on the side. He published a number of books, but was most recognized for his book Gandhi’s Truth, which won his a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award (Wikipedia).
Erikson had many contributions to psychology. Erikson's greatest achievement was his eight stages of psychosocial development, which were three more that he discovered than Sigmund Freud did. A good quote and example of this is made by Erik Erikson, "It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood...