Psychosocial Crisis In Erikson's Need For Development

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The woman given in this case study is not doing well. It is needless to say that she probably didn’t think that her life would end up this way. A woman of her age and a mother of two going through a divorce is always a stressful and complicated time. To make matters worse, this crisis in her life corresponds perfectly with a crisis in her faith life. My initial guess is that these two crises are not individual events, but rather that they are interrelated on a fundamental level. From the information given in this case study it would appear that this woman is experiencing developmental issues in two ways: her divorce and crumbling family life has thrust her into a psychosocial crisis of early adulthood, and the resulting crisis has revealed …show more content…

As Erikson points out, the primary psychosocial crisis that takes place during this stage of life is intimacy vs isolation. As someone from the young adult stage this woman is still a relatively young and presumably has many years ahead of her. Like most young people, I’m sure this woman desires relationships and intimacy within his relationships (which is probably why she was married in the first place). The need for relationships, according to Erikson, goes beyond the simple desire for companionship. Young adults coming into their own are in search of a sense of their own identity in relationship with others. This is to say identity does not develop out of a vacuum, but rather in a system of relationships (both intimate and interpersonal) that shape the individual. The main psychosocial drive in this stage is the need for intimacy, which is contrasted with its antithesis: isolation. Isolation is the fear of being separated from others in a manner that denies the possibility of relationships and the future possibility of generativity. And since we form our sense of identity in relation to our relationships, a person in isolation has difficulty navigating this stage. One of the most important and defining relationship in this woman’s life has ended, and many of her other relationships (with extended family, in-laws and friends) have changed forever. Erikson writes that the greatest danger of isolation is, “a regressive and hostile reliving of the identity conflict and, in the case of a readiness for regression, a fixation on the earliest conflict with the primal Other.” What this means is that we keep reliving the intimacy conflict over and over again in our other attempts at relationships. What this means is that if this woman is having difficulty with this developmental stage that she will continue to have trouble with her relationships and this may bring up

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