ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Eric Erikson's major contribution—the conceptualization of a developmental approach to ego mastery. Erikson's approach to personality development is highly compatible with social work's philosophy and values, and lends itself to the profession's interest in how social institutions foster development. Erikson credited Sigmund Freud with taking monumental steps in applying contemporary concepts from physics to describe personality as an energy system. He acknowledged his debt to Freud's conceptualization of the psychoanalytic method, and adopted many Freudian principles in his treatment approach. Erikson's theory offers a normative approach to development across the life cycle. Erikson's psychosocial theory contains a number of principles that provide the practitioner with useful perspectives for cross-cultural social work practice. His major contribution to the psychoanalytic method was a statement of the need for interpretation of the client's developmental and historical distortions.
