Formerly a head teacher, Kit Welchman has worked as a counsellor for twenty years and as a trainer and supervisor. He has led workshops in related areas such as stress management, bereavement, team building and prejudice. He is a parent and grandparent and lives in Shropshire on the Welsh Borders.

Klappentext

Erik H. Erikson is widely considered one of the most influential thinkers to have emerged from the field of psychoanalysis. His work is concerned with the relevance of psychotherapy to the everyday modern world. His significance lies in the issues he addresses, the concepts he provides, and the many still unresolved questions he poses on the relationship of the individual to society. It was Erikson who originated the term 'identity crisis' and this book shows how his theories developed in response to his own life experience. It offers a comprehensive view of Erikson as a person, as a writer and thinker, and as a psychotherapist.

As well as exploring the way Erikson's life and work are connected, this book examines the application of his thinking to contemporary social and political issues, and to current psychotherapeutic and counselling practice. His writings have a humanity and approachability that reach beyond the world of psychotherapy to consider questions fundamental to us all. These include the precariousness as well as the creative resilience of individual and group identities; racial and other forms of discrimination; non-violent conflict resolution; the generation gap; and issues of human development from childhood and adolescence to maturity and old age.

Erik Erikson will be of interest to counsellors and psychotherapists in training and in practice. It is also relevant to members of the caring professions seeking a deeper understanding of their work and its place in society.

Inhalt

Preface and acknowledgements
Aims, themes and context
Early life to adulthood
1902-1933
Immigrant to author
1933-1950
Childhood and society
triple bookkeeping, the concept of identity, clinical and cultural contexts
Childhood and society
ego and identity, the stages of the life cycle, the historical evolution of identity
The 1950's
youth and the identity crisis
The 1950's
return to Freud, Luther and Germany
The 1960's
the search for Gandhi's truth
Dilemmas of liberation
Critical review of work and influence
Personal and cultural identity in contemporary psychotherapy and counselling
The contribution of counselling and psychotherapy to contemporary social and political issues
Epilogue
vitality in old age
References
Index.