For decades Erik H. Erikson's concept of the stages of human development has deeply influenced the field of contemporary psychology. Incorporating new material by Joan M. Erickson, THE LIFE CYCLE COMPLETED eloquently closes the circle of Erik Erikson's theories, outlining the unique rewards and challenges--for both individuals and society--of very old age....

Identity: Youth and Crisis collects Erik H. Erikson's major essays on topics originating in the concept of the adolescent identity crisis. Identity, Erikson writes, is an unfathomable as it is all-pervasive. It deals with a process that is located both in the core of the individual and in the core of the communal culture. As the culture changes, new kinds of identity questions arise—Erikson comments, for example, on issues of social protest and changing gender roles that were particular to the 1960s.

Representing two decades of groundbreaking work, the essays are not so much a systematic formulation of theory as an evolving report that is both clinical and theoretical. The subjects range from "creative confusion" in two famous lives—the dramatist George Bernard Shaw and the philosopher William James—to the connection between individual struggles and social order. "Race and the Wider Identity" and the controversial "Womanhood and the Inner Space" are included in the collection. ....

Erik H. Erikson's remarkable insights into the relationship of life history and history began with observations on a central stage of life: identity development in adolescence. This book collects three early papers that—along with Childhood and Society—many consider the best introduction to Erikson's theories.

"Ego Development and Historical Change" is a selection of extensive notes in which Erikson first undertook to relate to each other observations on groups studied on field trips and on children studied longitudinally and clinically. These notes are representative of the source material used for Childhood and Society.

"Growth and Crises of the Health Personality" takes Erikson beyond adolescence, into the critical stages of the whole life cycle.

In the third and last essay, Erikson deals with "The Problem of Ego Identity" successively from biographical, clinical, and social points of view—all dimensions later pursued separately in his work....

In this psychobiography, Erik H. Erikson brings his insights on human development and the identity crisis to bear on the prominent figure of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. ....