It has come to me to propose that each of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development is governed by some archetypical myth as describeed by Jung. This proposal is born of the observation that it seems that people in their fifth stage of development [ identity vs identity crisis ] are essential in seek to surround themselves with elements of their reality that reflect their own motives and desires.
Thus they become Narcissus and the world essentially becomes the pond upon which they find and adore reflections of themselves. I suspect should this quest succeed the pond, which in the case of the male will mostly be represented by his chosen female counterpart and I suppose visa visa, the individual can then “move” onto the next phase of development , [ isolation vs intimacy ].
This seems like a reasonable proposition to me, one that I should subject to further investigation in order to determine it’s validity. The only thing is having chosen the myth of Narcissus as the core driver of the fifth stage for only the last part of it : where Narcissus has been punished and he lies beside the pond ever yearning for the reflection of himself, I have not taken the rest of the myth into consideration.
I suppose one can, at least, in the case of the girl speculate that there are few instances where the girl has not spurned the affections of some suitor or suitor(s) only to find herself languishing in loneliness without some individual who admires and confirms her percieved positive elements of her personality.
[Only it’s a gender switch, which although I know not to alway s be significant in this field, it is uncomfortable as a start, although I would inevitably come to this conclusion anyway.]
The challange here is :
1. What comments do you have on the proposal itself?
2. If it seems reasonable to you, what additional comments can you make to it?