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Ben Carson: An in-depth look at his life through Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Development Erik Erikson admits that Freud's ideas are basically correct. However, Erikson insists that society and culture are of great influence on the persons development. The Erikson's theory of life span development is the essential ground for observation of human development and it reveals the constant development through the whole life span. Erikson insisted that every individual goes though eight stages of his life, and at every stage he should resolve crisis. Erikson described such development to be a constant process.
Erikson agreed, that many factors influence this process, such as: cultural, historical, and economic factors. Many theorists disagree with Erikson's theory and been criticizing it for years. It is considered to be too broad and vastly generalized, which makes it difficult to be proved by experiments. The purpose of this work is to make attempts to view the objectivity of Erikson's theory of life span applying it to the analysis of the biography of the doctor Ben Carson.
For majority of Americans and people all over the world it is a difficult task to grow up and finds their place in the society, in the community, in the world. But it was especially difficult to do so for African-Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. It was not an easy task to identify themselves in common poverty, powerlessness and white majority among them. And it was extremely difficult to find a role model for them, because the number of the roles they could take in their future lives was very limited for African-Americans, and not many of them could afford to become good specialists. The famous neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is the great example for the contemporary African-American young people.
And his mother Sonya Carson was a key factor of his childhood development. His mother Sonja was one of 24 children and she got married when she was 13. After that she moved in with her husband to Detroit. Erikson insists that development functions by the epigenetic principle. The idea of this principle is that people develop through a predetermined unfolding their personalities in eight stages.
The success or absence of the success on previous stages determines the success of the every following stage. On each stage there exist various psychosocial in nature development tasks. Here Erikson follows Freud and calls them crises. And there is also a certain optimal time on every stage.
It is neither useful to rush children to achieve adultery, nor possible to slow down that process. Erikson emphasized, that there is a balance in what people learn. The tasks of each stage are referred by two terms. And both sides of the task are equally important for development, because the person should understand the both possibilities to know which is primary to follow. Hence, in Ben Carson's development the possible guilt after is parents divorce according to Erikson after the lack of success on the previous stage, transformed into inferiority on the stage four: from six to twelve years.
On this stage now works a much broader social sphere. Teachers and friends and other members of he community join the parents and other family members. Drawing strength in the power of positive thinking Sonja Carson laid down the academic and moral groundwork for transforming Bens life and helping him to gain success. When he, his brother and mother returned from Detroit, Ben Carson occurred at the bottom of his class in the predominately white Higgins Elementary School. Much later he described himself as the fifth-grade class dummy, a child who, taunted by classmates and ignored by teachers. Erikson mentions various additional sources of inferiority, which join the result of the success / non -success on the previous stage.
They include racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Two major events changed his perception of the world and his ability. He was prescribed a pair of glasses and that enabled him to see the chalkboard more clearly. And his mother was very determined to see and develop his intellectual potential. But Sonja's insistence transformed that inferiority into competence. Sonja had only a third grade education, she worked long hours and she passed on her observations to her boys, as recorded in Ben's autobiography, "Gifted Hands. " But the vast development of her childrens identities was the primary goal of Ben Carson's mother.
And such development is one of the essences of Erikson theory. As Ben Carson said, his mother helped him and his brother to focus their abilities. Despite being illiterate Sonja insisted that her sons do very well in all academic disciplines. She made them read various books and then write reports about them.
And Ben Carson said, that being a teenage boy he "began to understand {the key to success} through reading about the lives of successful people. They were organized and took advantage of situations. The hallmark of an inefficient person is doing the same thing over and over and over again." Nowadays Ben Carson suggests people to find out their gifts and talents by doing some self-examination. "Compile a list, actually do some self-study. Youre talking about your life, so take the time to do this, " he says. "Choose from among those things. " For example, one of Carson's self-assessments was that he was always a very careful person. And although he earned through formal study the privilege of practicing medicine as a physician, he also insists: "you dont have to have an advanced degree. All you need is a love and a desire to move forward and a willingness to achieve. " Here Ben Carson approached the next stage, and after the considerable success on the previous stage his development on the fifth stage transferred into identity, rather than into role confusion.
The major task on this stage is to avoid role confusion. Erikson was mostly interested in adolescence and its patterns were the bases for his thinking about all the other stages. Ben Carson's desire to become a doctor started with his interest in psychology. He was fascinated with brain function. On this stage from age six to eleven school is extremely important. Children learn to make things, use tools, and here starts their interests with future career possibilities.
For Ben Carson there was one more factor: his interest grew, when he listened in local church to the stories about missions and doctors, who traveled all around the world and helped people. "I thought it was the most noble profession in the world. " Ben Carson started to apply himself in school, and experienced real success in knowledge. But the community of the Afro-Americans, where not academic achievements were popular, but the role model of the bandleader and drug dealer surrounded him. On that stage surrounding is of great importance for the persons development and it greatly influenced his life. But today the majority of children have TV and mass media for the role model. People there are all beautiful and rich, they all are unlike those plain people in the neighborhood.
But later many people become disappointed: how is that, that to achieve the chosen glorious job they have to work so hard. And after they get those jobs, they seem to lack the glory, creativity and fulfilling that they expected. Not like on TV. Thats why many people find it easier to draw to the short cuts that crime seems to offer, or the fantasy life that drugs promise. In one of his books he tells the tale of his attempt to stab in a dispute a classmate who tried to change a radio station. His knife blade hit the boy's belt buckle, instead of his flesh.
Ben Carson was shocked by the ease with which he'd nearly took another's life. Here he faced the major questions, which the personality should answer himself on this stage according to Erikson. Did I develop the basic sense of trust? Do I have a strong sense of independence, competence, and feel in control of my life? Adolescents who have successfully dealt with earlier conflicts are ready for the "Identity Crisis", which is considered by Erikson as the single most significant conflict a person must face. After that incident Ben Carson ran away, locked himself in the bathroom and was reading the Bible, seeking wisdom.
After that he abandoned the willingness ever to let another person control him. He freed his anger and concentrated on his education. He controlled his anger and turned towards books and academic accomplishments. Half a century ago or earlier young people search for role models in their parents, who were decent, hard working, and they all wanted to be just like them. "Thats what weve got to do in a society where knowledge is power. A strong back is no longer enough.
If you rely on the media, all youll see is the glorification of that multimillion contract for athletes and that entire hullabaloo about entertainers. Our youth follow that stuff like the Pied Piper, which is as effective as putting a shackle on their ankles and driving a stake in the ground. Its still slavery and its frustrating to me, " said Carson. "The opportunities here are absolutely enormous for people who want them. " Intimacy and the ability to be with others are the characteristics of the stage six. The young adults should not prove themselves anymore. The main task is to identify themselves as couples.
Ben Carson and his wife were the sweethearts during their college tone, after Ben Carson won a scholarship to Yale with record academic achievements. According to Erikson the person that successfully negotiates this stage for the rest of his / her life will carry the virtue or psychosocial strength Erikson calls love. Now Ben Carson and his wife Candy are the role models for their children. The seventh stage is the middle adulthood, the balance of genera tivity and stagnation. Generativity is an extension of love into the future. Erikson suggested that adults need children and children need adults on this stage.
It is essential on this stage to nurse own children or in some other ways to help the future generations. Dr. Ben Carson supports the early child development program and he is the founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which he created after getting tired of seeing athletes get better recognition than academically gifted students. The success on this stage will help the person to carry the ability for caring for the rest of his life. The Erikson's stages are the not most popular concept among other theorists. But most segments of life are easy to identify in application to persons life and development, which can be seen from the result of the present research.
The stages include logical sequences and things happen in some order. The reactions of the personality and its development are not biologically programmed, but the sequence of actions makes sense as the result of the social surrounding and upbringing. The Erikson's eight stages are reasonable in application to the demands of our understanding and culture, it also offers us insights we might not have noticed otherwise But it still requires further research in application to the other cultures, because there the timing can be quite different. Works used: Carson B. , Murphy C.
B. (1996). Think Big. Zondervan. Carson B. , Murphy C. B. (1990). Gifted hands.
Zondervan. Erikson E. H. (1963). Childhood and society.
W. W. Norton & Company Inc. Erikson E.
H. (1994). Identity: Youth and Crisis. W. W. Norton & Company Inc. Gregg L. , Lewis D.
S. (2002). Ben Carson. Zondervan.
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