Episode 2.5: The Eight Stages of Man – On Vikings and Butterflies

Millennia ago, Hippocrates wrote, “Art is Long, Life is Short.” Well, this episode is long, but the concept of the Eight Stages of Man gives us insight into how the cycle of life unfolds, however long or short life may be. 

In this episode, we turn once again to the second generation of psychoanalytic theorists after Freud, his grandchildren, so to speak. Erik Erikson suffered an identity crisis that caused him to reinvent himself, and also invent some of the most important ideas about development in the history of psychoanalysis. He shows how we continue to develop past childhood, all the way to the end of life. 

The Eight Stages of Man teaches us that life is made up of a series of “tasks,” each stage presents us with a challenge to be met that brings us to the next stage and the next, all the way to the end. It is a map to The Circle of Life -- “Na Savenya!”