Erik Erikson

Erikson married Joan Serson Erikson in 1930 and remained married to her until his death. They had 4 children together. His son, Kai T. Erikson is a prominent American sociologist.

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany to Karla Abrahamsen and Waldemar Isidor Salomonsen, who was a Jewish stockbroker. He was born to his mother under the circumstances where his mother had not seen his father for several months.

He was registered as Erik Salomonsen at birth and there is no information available about his biological father. Shortly after he was born, his mother moved to Karlsruhe to become a nurse and got remarried to a pediatrician, Theodor Homburger.

In 1911, Erickson was officially adopted by his stepfather, Theodor Homburger and he became Erik Homburger. The story of his birth was kept from him for a long time and he grew up not knowing who his real father was.

Erikson was a teacher at a private school in Vienna where he became friends with the daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud. She got him interested in psychoanalysis and he got trained in the science at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute.

In 1933, while Erikson was being trained in psychoanalysis, Nazis took over Germany and he had to leave the country. He first moved to Denmark and then emigrated to States where he became the first child psychoanalyst in Boston.

After working in Boston for some time, Erikson worked at various positions in various institutes like, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Judge Baker Guidance Center, Harvard Medical School and Psychological Clinic, etc.

In 1936, Erikson joined Harvard University and worked at the Institute of Human Relations, while teaching at the Medical School. Side by side, he was also studying a set of children on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota.

Erikson left Harvard and joined the staff of the California University in 1937. He associated with the Institute of Child Welfare there and opened his private practice. He also devoted his time in studying the children of the Yurok tribe.

Erikson’s main contribution to psychology was his developmental theory. He professed that humans developed throughout their life span, which is explained in his eight psychosocial stages of development.