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Rating: 
Summary: More than an excellent biography
Review: All too often when reading a biography, the author fails to ask the questions that often spring to my mind. Most of these questions are about about the subjects motivation...the why questions. Lawrence Friedman dares to try and answer the hard and complex questions about a life, in this case, Erik Erikson's life. Even if Erikson is only a vaguely familiar name, this biography is worth reading because its a study of a very human life. In addition to being a well-written life study, Identity's Architect helps us to ask the difficult question about the origins of our own identity. In tracing the reoccuring themes in Erikson's life, Friedman makes transparent the very human activity of identity construction. We know none of us springs whole from Zeus'head, but we rarely question how we came to be the individuals we are. In asking the questions of Erikson's life, Friedman challenges us to question the construction of our own identities.
Rating:
Summary: If You Want to Understand Erikson's Works, Read This First.
Review: I had been introduced to the theories of Erik H. Erikson in a grad. course in Educational Psychology. The course introduced just enough of Erikson to whet my appetite to learn more about the man; I am glad I did because after reading this book, I feel I have gained a richer understanding of his 8 Stage Life Cycle Theory, and the concept of Identity. Professor Friedman's book is compassionate, but not fawning. He gives as complete a picture of a very complex man; as complete as one would hope to have, and he does so in a non-judgemental way. There are many unattractive aspects of Erikson the man; why did this sensitive man, this lover of children who was estranged from his own step-father, virtually disown his own son, who had Down's Syndrome, and have him institutionalized? What made him so ambivalent about his Jewish identity? Friedman explores these issues in a very thorough, yet compassionate way. Erikson himself had a difficult time reconciling the dark side of Gandi while writing his biography; lovers of Erikson, like myself, may have that same struggle while reading this book, but Mr. Friedman does a superb job of bringing out, and sythesizing the "dark Erik" with the Erikson whose works have inspired many a generation of people like myself who are advocates for the welfare of children. I read this book first before reading "Childhood and Society" and "Identity Youth and Crisis" and I am glad I did, for Eriksons paradigm was born from his own identity crisis he suffered, which Friedman does a masterful job of portraying. If you really want to understand Erikson's Works, read this book first. You too will be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: Mutual Admiration Societies
Review: Mediocre, ladder climbing academics, as opposed to real scholars, sometimes manage to learn over the years how to appear significant. Friedman appears to have mastered the ropes. Get the right publisher, see to it the publisher sends your book to friends for reviews. Arrange for dual hardback and paper back printing. If you read "Identity's Architect" be sure to read the introduction, preface, acknowledgement and such, and jot down the names mentioned. You will have recorded a mediocre mutual admiration society.
Graduate students who truly want to become educated need to learn about mutual admiration societies, campus fads, academic career climbers, mediocre professors who take an early retirement from a lower university and manage to get a paying position at a more significant university by jumping on a new external funding opportunity. I advise too that you read book reviews and keep a keen eye on the names you find mentioned together, reviewers who criticize the book that was not written and who trash a book they did not read. Long is The list of shils. Buy and study a copy of Daniel Boorstin, "The Image" and you too will be pepared for designing your academic career. If you want to become educated and a real scholar, you may want to limit formal schooling to foreign language mastery and train yourself beginning with Mortimer J. Adler's classic "How to Read a Book."
Are you one of those who thinks government corrupt? Our Campus populations consist of plenty who will stab friends in the back over a small grant or accept a large tax payer funded research grant for research they already did with a series of small grants from their university. Then, there are the professors who fake respect for a professor they despise simply because that professor is skilled at the grant writing game. A book should be written, at least one song recorded about the American campus hustle. As one swell put it several years ago: 'government funding may make academics richer but it doesn't make them smarter'
It is a contest who will be forgotten first, Erikson or his official biographer, who got the opportunity to compile the official biography, as no one else more prominent was interested. None of the major biographers saw Erikson important enough to waste several years of work on. Oh, a note about allusions to "book awards." When an academic has real book awards such as a Pulitzer or some other award significant enough to be listed in a World Almanac, they name the award. When they had a few insignificant local awards, they use vague language like "book awards." There should be a book on the hype publishers use to sell books. Authors nearly always write the jacket blurbs, unless they really are significant. Then, major figures or accomplished Editors write them.
Friedman and the remains of the Erikson fan club need to ask themelves a serious question. Did Friedman do more for the forgotten Erikson by writing a biography of him, than Erikson actually did for American thought? Most likely the benefit was mutual; Each man benefited from the other. The biographer elevated his image and the Professor written biography exaggerates the importance of the forgotten "thinker." Daniel Boorstin would call this scenario a "pseudo-event" and its pseudo-event creation (the law of pseudo-events. 'a pseudo-event creates other pseudo-events').
What was Erikson? He was not a scientist. He was not a grand theorist. He wasn't a leading intellectual. In study after study, psychoanalysis is found to be ineffective. In fact, there is no evidence Freud himself helped a single one of his "patients" - according to the patients Franz Boas students located and interviewed. Under careful rational analysis, Erikson was probably a secular high priest, a sort of theologian, a modern shaman. His work had no factual basis, no rational footing. He will not be remembered.
How many of you readers have any idea who he was or why you should invest money and a few hours reading a thick book about him? It is well written but still academic and consequently boring to most people. The last truly well-written book Friedman wrote is a book he would like to forget, "Inventors of the Promised Land." He invested over 15 years on "Gregarious Saints". Track down the brief history of that tome before deciding to buy a copy of "Identity's Architect." It is not a brilliant book. It is competent, if you ignore the psychological parts.
A lot of humanities professors who still waste time turning their "scholarship" over to psychoanalytic formulas. Once a scholar falls in love with any formula, they condemn their work to mediocrity. It is revolting what happens when a "scholar" or artist ploughs a loose theory to any investigation of human kind. Most revolting of all is when an alledged "scientific" theory is already proven wrong. The search for truth stops at the starting gate when any simple theoretical formula is applied to research and analysis. The end result is no more englightening than formula, unsigned romance novels.
This biography could have been a lot shorter. An educated editor would have insisted on more sticking to the facts and less "shrinking Erik Erikson." Some publishers puzzle me to no end. They will not financially break even on any book they publish written by professors like Friedman. Yet, they repeatedly publish them and in doing so, add weight to university library basement storage.
My advice is not to waste good time on this book, unless you are a leisure reader who would waste good time reading books like a novel by George Washington Cable.
Rating:
Summary: A superb biography and introduction to Erik H. Erikson
Review: This is a superb biography of one of the most influential psychoanalytic theorists of the American postwar period. Erikson's writings profoundly influenced not only clinical psychological work, but also the general tenor of social and cultural thinking in this country. Yet his insights were not immediately embraced, and his personal life was not without turmoil and profound heartache. Lawrence Friedman has done a wonderful job of presenting a fully dimensioned, meticulously researched and empathic portrait of this remarkable clinician and thinker who, perhaps more than any other individual writer, shaped the way that we think about ourselves and our society.
Rating:
Summary: A superb biography and introduction to Erik H. Erikson
Review: This is a superb biography of one of the most influential psychoanalytic theorists of the American postwar period. Erikson's writings profoundly influenced not only clinical psychological work, but also the general tenor of social and cultural thinking in this country. Yet his insights were not immediately embraced, and his personal life was not without turmoil and profound heartache. Lawrence Friedman has done a wonderful job of presenting a fully dimensioned, meticulously researched and empathic portrait of this remarkable clinician and thinker who, perhaps more than any other individual writer, shaped the way that we think about ourselves and our society.
Rating:
Summary: More than an excellent biography
Review: This work is an excellent example of scholarly rigor and narrative skill. Friedman has given us a wonderfully detailed account of Erikson's life and work in the context of post W.W.II American culture. He offers compassionate but critical insight into Erik Erikson's personal and professional story. From Friedman we learn how important Erikson is to American intellectual history and to the shaping of our collective identity. A great read.
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