Theorist Information
Erik Homberger Erikson was a male psychologist who was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany in an affluent society with a Jewish background. He was raised by his mother Karla Abrahamsen a Danish women from a wealthy family. She was originally married to a Danish man who left her hours after their wedding. She then became pregnant by a man who remains nameless causing her to move to Germany. While in Germany she marries Dr. Theodor Homberger Erikson’s pediatrician. Once Erikson found out that Dr. Homberger was not his dad he began to go through his own identity crisis. He said that he struggled with not only his identity but with his name as well.
After Erikson graduated from high school he found that the traditional outlook on school was not for him. So he traveled for a year around Europe and when he returned back to Germany and was presented with an offer he could not refuse. …show more content…
The two met at a masked ball in Vienna and fell in love. Later on that year Joan became pregnant and Erikson refused to marry her. He did not want to be permanently committed to someone for fear of brining shame to his mother and step-father because she was not of the Jewish faith. But after many talks among his friends he came to the realization that if he did not marry her he would be the cause of a vicious circle of miss identity in his own child like what was done to him. Seeing how he did not want anyone to feel the way he once felt he went on to marry Joan three different times in three different ceremonies. The first was in a Jewish tradition, the second in a Protestant tradition and the third one was in a civil ceremony to make sure each family would be happy. Marrying Joan was the most stable thing that Erikson had done in a long time and much to his surprise she was to be a big part in the development of his approach to