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Workshop - Erikson's Triple Bookkeeping
By Thad Curtz and Don Finkel
(Total Scheduled Time - 165 minutes)

[Some of the first sections can be done as study questions or a pre-reading exercise, if you do not have a three hour block available.]

Divide into groups of three; find people you are not accustomed to working with in workshops. No scribe is necessary; you will all want to take careful notes.

1. (15 minutes) Erikson keeps writing sentences in which he uses some trio of terms. Have someone on your group read the first of the following sentences aloud, and decide on what the three terms are. Each of you should write them down on a piece of paper so they can be the first entries in three columns of words. Now have someone else read the next sentence, agree on the three terms in it, and decide individually how to add them to your three lists so each term is in its appropriate column, unde rneath the same kind of term from the previous trio. Go through in this way until you finish with the sentences. Then compare each column on your three lists; discuss any words whose meanings are still shaky for you; try to resolve any disagreements abo ut where given terms should go in your three columns.

"A human being, thus, is at all times an organism, an ego, and a member of society and is involved in all three processes of organization² (p. 36, line 6).

"To understand a given case of psychopathology you proceed to study whatever set of observable changes seem most accessible either because they dominate the symptom presented or because you have learned a methodological approach to this particular set set of items, be they the somatic changes, the personality transformations, or the social upheavals involved² (p. 45, line 21).

"Somatic tension, individual anxiety, and group panic, then, are only different ways in which human anxiety presents itself to different methods of investigation. (p 37, line 20).

"In the history of science these three process have belonged to three different scientific disciplines - biology, psychology, and the social sciences - each of what studied what it could isolate, count, and dissect: single organisms, individual mind, and social aggregates" (p. 36, third line up from the bottom).

"Unfortunately, however, this knowledge is tied to the conditions under which it was secured: the organism undergoing dissection or examination; the mind surrendered to experiment or interro gation; social aggregates spread out on statistical tables" (p. 37, line 7).

[WATCH OUT. This next sentence has four terms in it, but they will go in three columns.]

"We saw such a convergence in Sam¹s case, where a hostility problem came to a critical focus all at once in his milieu, in his maturational stage, in his somatic condition, and in his ego defenses." (p. 44, next to last line).

Here is a scrambled tri o of terms from the book; add it to your columns -- roles, constitution or temperament, defense mechanisms

Here's another trio -- breakdown of ego identity, group panic, exhaustion and fever.

How about the title of Section 3, on p. 72 -- "Zones, Modes, and Modalities?²

2. (l0 minutes) Consider the title of Erikson's book. Here we have two terms, not three. How do these two terms relate to the three columns you created in question 1? Why do you think Erikson chose this title for his book?

3.(5 minutes) Keep your books closed and continue down the page by working out together a list of the four body zones Erikson discusses in chapter 2, a list of the 4- 6 (depending on how you count them) ego modes associated with them, and a list of the 4-5 social modalities associated with them. Get as far as you can in the time allotted with the book closed.

4. (5 minutes) Now open your books, and complete the lists of zones, modes, and modalities.

5. (20 minutes) Go over and discuss the meaning of the zones, modes, and modalities, using the book to help you out. Understand what they mean, how they differ, and how they relate to each other.

6. (15 minutes) Agree on and write down a definition of a zone, a mode, and modality (3 definitions).

7.(10 minutes) Here are a few pieces of behavior. Try to locate each one in terms of zone and mode.

8. (20 minutes) Consider the first case history in the book, Sam's fits. Go through the history and add to your three columns all the factors which contribute to Sam's symptoms. Each factor you can locate should go in one of your three columns, and if you can't figure out where to place it, looking back at the list of terms in each column may help.

9. (10 minutes) Erikson says all symptoms are a function of conflict, and that both the child's conflict and the mother's most neurotic conflict enter into this symptom. Try to write one sentence for Sam and one sentence for his mother, in the form " I want ----- But I don't want" which will express their respective conflicts.

BREAK - 15 MINUTES

10. (10 minutes) Erikson is a psychoanalytic theorist (i.e., his assumptions are rooted in Freudian theory). From what you have read so far, state as many ideas and approaches as you can that he shares with Freud.

11. (7 minutes) Erikson is also rewriting Freudian theory, particularly Freud's account of psychosexual development. How does his account of infantile sexuality and development differ from Freud's? Be as clear and specific as you can about what kind of theoretical change Erikson is making.

12. (8 minutes) Read the discussion of Ann on page 52. Use this passage to further elaborate your view of how Erikson differs from Freud in his way of interpreting human behavior.

13. (15 minutes) QUESTIONS (Whole class together)