Young Man Luther by Erikson: Psychoanalysis and History Review

Introduction to Erik Erikson

Before reviewing his book, it is appropriate to consider the life of author Erik H. Erikson, in order to gain some insight into his motivations for writing it. The book presents two very powerful themes: the first concerns the famous historical figure and religious reformer Martin Luther, whose name has been woven into the history of the civilized world for centuries. The second major theme is psychoanalysis, for which the late Erik Erikson was a well-known practitioner and innovator.

Erikson was born on June 15, 1902, near Frankfurt, Germany, and died on May 12, 1994, in the United States. According to sources including Columbia University Press and the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Erikson was born into a Jewish family as Erik Salomonsen, the son of Karla Abrahamsen and stockbroker Waldemar Isidor Salomonsen. However, there is evidence that Erikson was actually born as a result of his mother's extramarital affair — a fact reportedly not revealed to him until after his childhood. He stood out in the Jewish community because he was a tall, blond, blue-eyed young man and was teased at school for looking more Nordic than Jewish.

These dynamics of his origins may well have stirred his lifelong interest in the social and psychological aspects of personality and identity. They may also have stimulated his particular interest in Martin Luther, whose youth was similarly rocked with controversy. In any event, Erikson attended art school in Germany and for several years taught art — and other subjects — in Vienna, to children of Americans who had traveled there to study Freudian psychology. He also trained in Vienna as a psychoanalyst under Anna Freud.

Erikson moved to the United States in 1933, changed his name, and taught at Harvard University, Yale, Berkeley, and the Menninger Foundation. He wrote numerous books and became known in the world of psychology for his theory of personality. He understood and accepted the basic tenets of Freudian theory, but believed that Freud had perhaps misjudged certain dynamics in the development of personality. Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development trace human beings across their entire lifetimes, whereas Freud's stages of development carried only through adolescence.

Overview of Young Man Luther

In his preface (p. 8), Erikson acknowledges that "Sigmund Freud's monumental work is the rock on which" Erikson's own advanced theories are based. He does not openly challenge Freud, but writes that his theories on the ego are rooted in — and go beyond — the work of Sigmund and Anna Freud, among others. In writing this book, Erikson wants the reader to understand that "whatever references are made" to similarities in the lives of Freud and Luther "are not derived from any impression of a personal likeness" between the two individuals (p. 9). Both men displayed genius in their own fields, and both had, Erikson writes, "a grim willingness to do the dirty work of their respective ages." What struck Erikson as he researched both figures was that they "kept human conscience in focus in an era of material and scientific expansion."

In reading the book, it becomes clear that Erikson set out to build a case for his own theories of psychosocial development — for youth as well as older persons — and he devotes many pages to explaining his reasons for being intrigued with the various crises that young people face on their path to maturity. This aim is constantly reinforced through his analysis of Luther's life and times. It is worth noting that Erikson effectively seeks validation for his own developmental work through his interpretation and deep analysis of Luther's troubles, conflicts, and strengths.

Erikson acknowledges on page 21 the "dichotomy" of psychoanalysis and religion; it is almost as though he is soft-selling his indifference to religious dogma, careful not to let readers become preoccupied with his personal views on religion. Yet in practice he places psychology well above religion, since psychology "endeavors to establish what is demonstrably true in human behavior," whereas religion "elaborates on what feels profoundly true even though it is not demonstrable."

Regarding the book's emphasis on Luther: in his youth Martin Luther was "a rather endangered young man," Erikson writes — "beset with a syndrome of conflicts" (p. 15) — and yet the young Luther was able to find a resolution for those conflicts in the spiritual side of life, thanks in part to a superior within the Augustinian order. Part of that resolution, Erikson explains, was Luther's ability to "bridge a political and psychological vacuum" created by "Western Christendom."

The Fit in the Choir and Luther's Early Crises

In Chapter II, "The Fit in the Choir," Erikson writes that a pivotal moment in the early life of Luther occurred when, in his mid-twenties, Luther was in choir practice in the monastery and fell suddenly to the ground. His behavior was "like one possessed," and, according to three of Luther's young contemporaries, Luther "roared with the voice of a bull… 'It isn't me!'" (p. 23). The Latin translation of what Luther reportedly bellowed is "I am not!"

The Scripture being discussed at that moment was apparently Mark 9:17: "And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit." The colleagues of Luther who reported on the incident claimed he was "possessed by demons — the religious and psychiatric borderline case of the Middle Ages — and that he showed himself possessed" even though he did his best to deny it. Luther had entered the Black Monastery of the Augustinians in Erfurt at the age of twenty-one.

He entered the monastery against his father's will; his father had wanted him to be a lawyer, and Luther had already received a master of arts degree "with high honors" at the University of Erfurt in 1505. Why did he leave the university? He had suffered "an attack of acute panic" during a loud and violent thunderstorm, during which he made a vow of some kind (p. 24).

At this point in the book, Erikson surveys the research on Luther's "fit" in the choir, drawing on various expert opinions. Otto Scheel, a German professor of theology, "flatly disavows" the story but in the process of denial equates Luther's possible "fit" with Paul's "miraculous [and yet pathological] conversion." A Dominican named Heinrich Denifle, another historian and archivist quoted by Erikson, suggests that Luther's "fit" resulted from "an abysmal depravity of character"; Denifle believed Luther to be "too much of a psychopath to be credited with honest mental or spiritual suffering" (p. 26). Dr. Paul J. Reiter, a Danish psychiatrist, contends that Luther suffered "erratic upsets in his nervous system" during his "neurotic" period in his twenties.

On pages 29–45, Erikson examines each expert's view of the "fit" at length, justifying his close attention to a single episode in Luther's life. On page 36, Erikson suspects that the reader suspects "the fit in the choir attracted me originally because I suspected the words 'I am not!' indicated Luther was asserting loudly that he was not possessed, or sinful, or sick." On page 37, Erikson states that in light of the emotional volatility Luther displayed throughout his later life — "weeping, sweating, and fainting" — it is reasonable to interpret the fit as representing the "symptomatic… pathological and defensive aspects of a total revelation… [likely based on] suppressed rage" that had no outlet. To support this, Erikson points out that both Freud and Darwin had "neurotic involvement" in their lives that led to a "change of direction." Darwin had failed in medicine; Freud had "neurotic suffering" and came upon his "supreme task almost accidentally."

One of Erikson's central points is that all three men — Freud, Darwin, and Luther — had profound difficulties with their fathers during their maturation. Erikson does not make it explicit, but underlying his entire narrative is an awareness of his own father-related conflicts as well.

Works Cited

Erikson, Erik H. Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Sharkey, Wendy. "Erik Erikson: 1902–1994." Psychology History. Retrieved 25 Oct. 2006.

Wikipedia. "Erik Erikson." Retrieved 26 Oct. 2006 at

Yahoo Education. "Encyclopedia: Erikson, Erik." Retrieved 26 Oct. 2006.