Erik erikson biography education week

American psychoanalyst and essayist (1902-1994)

For other people with similar names, see Eric Erickson (disambiguation).

Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a Danish-German-Jewish child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings.

Erik erikson biography education week

He coined the phrase identity crisis.

Despite lacking a university degree, Erikson served as a professor at prominent institutions, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley,^[9] and Yale. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Erikson as the 12th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.

Early life

Erikson's mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a prominent Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark.

She was married to Jewish stockbroker Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen but had been estranged from him for several months at the time Erik was conceived. Little is known about Erik's biological fath