Word: roazen
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...Paul Roazen begins Erik H. Erikson: The Power and Limits of a Vision by pointing out some of these surface similarities between the Freud and Erikson schools. Freud grounded his theory of the primacy of sexual drive in a new and suggestive vocabulary (libido, repression, transference, regression) that was assimilated widely, if often too crudely. The same fate has befallen Erikson's catch-words "identity crisis," "life cycle," and the adjective "psycho-social." Freud also cultivated his Vienna Circle, which he assembled to carry on his legacy after his death; while Erikson never has sought to institutionalize his influence...
...Life History and the Historical Moment in the New York Review of Books--praise him for precisely that thoughtfulness and candor. And it speaks to this ongoing curiosity and self-questioning, rare enough for an established thinker whose theories have gained such wide recognition and acclaim, that just as Roazen published the first comprehensive critique of Erikson's corpus, Erikson himself finished Toys and Reasons, a fragmentary but thought-provoking book that addresses itself to most of Roazen's major objections...
...question Roazen tactfully raises has been the source of considerable, sometimes nasty, speculation and debate. The issue is how much Erikson's key thesis--that much of human behavior stems from the quest for a firm and acceptable "identity"--derives from his possible confusion and embarassment over his own identity. Erikson articulated the notion of a dramatic and often life-altering "identity crisis," usually occurring during adolescence, in his first book, Childhood and Society. His notion was that a break-down in sense-of-self could lead either to the perpetuation of identity confusion in a neurotic adulthood...
...Historical Moment in a New York Times Book Review, Martin Berman pointed a suspicious and defiant finger at Erikson for not laying bare the truth about his own Jewish origins, which Erikson himself at hinted at only vaguely. (Erikson readily acknowledges that his stepfather was a Jew, but Roazen notes that he makes a habit of referring to his parents by nationality only, and not by religion.) Berman also chastened Erikson, in an unbelievably patronizing tone, for not coming to grips with his own illegitimacy. He demands to know why Erikson gave up his step-father's name--Homburger--when...
...Roazen appraises this controversy dispassionately. He presents the conjectures about Erikson's denials of his own identity, and states all the reasonable evidence that stands in their favor, letting the disparity between accusation and reality speak for itself. But even Roazen's approach seems to beg the question. The best defense to these questions is to say that they really need none. Because Erikson did not know his real father, because he was of Danish ancestry and grew up in Germany, and because he became a permanent expatriate, traveling first to Austria and then to the U.S., he is obviously...