On Generativity and Identity: From a Conversation with Erik and Joan Erikson

Abstract

More than thirty years after the publication of his first book, Childhood and Society,Erik Homburger Erikson remains one of the most influential psychologists of our time. His "epigenetic" theory of the stages of human life, which models the complex interactions among the biological, psychological, and social factors that shape an individual's life, is still the most comprehensive account we have of human development throughout the life cycle, Joan Mowat Erikson, his wife, who has been his co-worker and editor throughout, is an artist and craftsperson whose interest in art as a healing medium has resulted in several programs of art activities for psychiatric patients and in the publication of her recent book, Activity, Recovery and Growth.