Packet Seventeen

Part One

James Joyce was an Irish poet, who from a young age, was urged to become a priest by friends and family, yet he decided to become a writer. He later left Ireland, and moved to the continent. Joyce was especially interested in the psychological conflicts of ordinary people. His novella, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, is a semi-autobiographical of himself when he was younger. It also shows stages of Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development, like the problem with intimacy and commitment, to the negative identity, which is the opposite of what parents would wish their children to be. “they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations” (Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial). In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Erikson’s stages can be seen throughout the text as Stephen, the main character, goes through life, specifically Identity Diffusion.

In the first major component of Identity Diffusion, Intimacy, this can be seen when Stephen cannot approach the woman he begins to fancy. “His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide”. Stephen begins to get feeling for a certain woman he sees on occasion, but yet he cannot directly approach her about his feelings. “Pride and hope and desire like crushed herbs in his heart sent up vapours of maddening incense before the eyes of his mind”. This connects to the component of Identity Diffusion, with “Fidelity involving being able to commit one's self to others on the basis of accepting other even when there may be ideological differences” (McLeud).

Next, Stephen then begins to show Diffusion of Time Perspective, where he cannot plan for his future. He is suggested heavily by others to join th...

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...es, which is extremely similar to the polar opposite of our parents’ image of us. Coincidence? I think not.

Works Cited

Davis, Doug, and Alan Clifton, eds. Psychosocial Theory: Erikson. Haverford College, 1995. Web. 5 May 2014. .

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. AllPsych, 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 5 May 2014. .

Gates, Robert C., ed. Adolescence: Psychosocial Development. N.p., 2014. Web. 6 May 2014. .

McLeod, Saul, ed. Erik Erikson. Simply Psychology, 2008. Web. 5 May 2014. .

Theory of Psychosocial Development. Nursing Theories, 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 May 2014. .