Participatory action reflections: transposing Erik Erikson into postmodern keys

Participatory action reflections: transposing Erik Erikson into postmodern keys

Patricia Foster Haines, Cornell University, USA

Paper presented at SCUTREA, 31st Annual Conference, 3-5 July 2001, University of East London

Introduction: framing the question

THIS is a time of meteoric change in the nature and scope of governments, peoples, and societies; and a time of puzzlement about what education's role should and/or can be in this change. Some critics see the times as a disaster, the breakdown of internal as well as external threads that have bound nations and cultures together in the past. Others see it as a transformative 'teaching moment': an opportunity to rethink the nature and purpose of education in relation not only to the changing cultural context but also to visions for a better, more just, more 'sustainable' future.

American political philosopher Francis Fukuyama characterizes this time as 'the Great Disruption' (Fukuyama, 1999). Setting aside the politics, behind his heralding of 'the end of history', Fukuyama's analysis of the ungluing of American culture - through erosion of public trust; disintegration of the family as a stabilizing social institution; and the breakdown of civil order through crime and violence - offers a thoughtful framework for revisiting fields such as educational psychology in search of ways to understand and address today's conundrums.

In brief, Fukuyama is not alone in arguing that the cultural shifts that the world is now experiencing make former modes of education not just moribund but dysfunctional and counter-productive, particularly with respect to the growing interdependence and restructuring of global cultures.(see for example Brancey, 1997; Nkake, 1995) Both scholars and practitioners are claiming that what is required from education in this context is not socialization into given codes of thought and behavior, inculcation of normative Truths, or even any particular set of skills marketable in the world of work. Instead, what the age calls for are capacities and propensities for critical reflection, moral understanding and choice, and cooperative civic action (see for example Cochinaux and de Woot 1996; Burstyn, 1997; Barber 1998).

Embeddedness: educational psychology as lens

Even though my passions lie more with history than psychology, I've come to appreciate the wisdom that educational psychologists -especially stage theorists - have to offer efforts to rethink and reconstruct ways to foster this kind of learning. While acknowledging Abraham Maslow as grounding such conversations, I've chosen to focus this reflection on Erik Erikson for two reasons .First, his attention to stages of learning throughout the life course speaks to the journey from 'adult education' to 'lifelong learning' that we're exploring in this conference. Second is the depth and passion with which he engages the power dynamic of cultural context and individual learning, which I see as crucial to the challenges we face at this particular 'postmodern' moment.

Contexts: Abraham Maslow and 'third force' education

Maslow broke new ground with Motivation and Personality (1954) by writing directly against what intellectual biographer Frank Goble (1970) terms 'first force' and 'second force' psychological theory and practice. 'First force' Freudianism, Maslow observed, posited that in the face of primary drives for survival and propagation, moral behavior was 'unnatural'; and the function of culture was to set controls on man's natural aggression and raw instincts, particularly sexuality. John B. Watson and fellow 'second force' behaviorists agreed that man as an animal needed intentional, systematic training to harness his biology-driven destructive, anti-social tendencies. The educational answer was stimulus-response learning in classrooms and communities which, like Walden Two (or Nazi and Soviet youth movements), targeted socialization into culturally desirable 'habit systems' of thought and behavior, in settings and through methods constructed and controlled by appropriately credentialed teacher/scholar dicatators (Watson,1914; Thorndike, 1912, 1932; Skinner, 1974).

Turning this around, Maslow argued that humankind is naturally endowed with altruistic and associative as well as destructive instincts, and therefore can learn how to choose the cooperative side of human nature. Rather than protecting society against innate potential for conflict by imposing obedience to order systems, this neo-humanist approach would foster mental, emotional, and social wellness, defined not as Freudian non-illness but as sets of positive attributes that could be nurtured over the lifespan (Maslow 1968). This kind of individual health, and by extension social health, thus requires a cultural environment focused on fostering wellness, not guarding against illness.

In sum, humankind has biologically-based instincts not just for competition and destruction but also for interconnectedness, justice, self-regulation, goodness, uniqueness, graceful functioning, playfulness, self sufficiency - and transcendence of cultural scripts in favor of individual agency. Furthermore, we don't just have cognitive capacities, which first and second force theorists would harness to counter precognitive instincts, but also cognitive needs. The function of education, then, is to foster continual development of creativity, wisdom, and character so that we can meet these needs in our own time and in our own ways, throughout our lives.

Erik Erikson: generative dissonance and the cycle of life

Erikson's nine-stage approach to understanding the way individuals engage with their cultures to create new possibilities throughout the life cycle adds substance and depth to this view of education. Erikson posits human beings as 'epigenetically' wired by nature to go through a series of developmental stages, each of which offers, as per the Chinese proverb, distinct opportunities for both turmoil and growth. Failure to resolve each stage's crisis leads to 'maladaptations' or 'malignancies' which stunt and endanger future development. If this happens, then the negatives, or 'distonics', are integrated into one's personality, where they become barriers to resolving -or even to engaging - future stages. (1982: 56) Unlike his first mentor Freud, Erikson had a deep appreciation for the social origins of each of these stages: because this process is socially embedded, it is mutually constructed through social interactions that either support or interfere with the epigenic plan. Thus, in stage one (1), an infant learns to trust or mistrust him/herself as well as the universe to the extent that its needs are reliably met. If things come down more or less on the trust side, the next step (2) is to wrestle through and find a balance between autonomy and the shame/doubt that can come from not meeting the expectations of caregivers. From there on the dichotomies are (3) initiative/guilt, (4) industry/inferiority, (5) identity/identity confusion, (6) intimacy/isolation, (7) generativity/stagnation, (8) integrity/despair, and - as Joan Erikson, Erik's wife and under-acknowledged colleague, explicated in 1997, following his death - (9) disgust/wisdom (1997). Each passage involves resolution of bipolar dissonances through 'higher synthesis'(1982: 46) - with 'wisdom' as the creative culmination.

Although his early work emphasizes the process rather than the product of each of these stages, towards the end of his life Erikson articulated the outcomes that could accrue from meeting each successfully along the way (1986,1997).

Thus, positive, or isotonic, resolution of #1 creates a fundamental attitude of hope , a belief that if life is not going well then it will do so eventually. The isotonic outcome of #2 is will, confidence and courage to name and claim what one wants. This stage is particularly crucial because it requires support from persons and an environment that provides a safe structure for testing the limits of willfulness so that one can choose boundaries without losing motivation.

Stage #3's outcome is purpose: if one's initiatives are received well and achieve their goals, then one gains a sense of direction and purpose; if not, it leaves one with a sense of inadequacy and guilt, and reluctance to take initiative in the future. Stage #4 leads to competence; stage #5 to fidelity to self and others; and stage #6 to love, which, unfortunately, is not defined as functionally as other outcomes.

The stages in this schema that are particular salient for adults are numbers 6 through 9. For #6 (intimacy/isolation), which comes at young adulthood, the task is to understand and embrace connectedness with others without losing one's autonomous sense of wholeness. As above, the outcome here is love, respect and appreciation for self as well as for others. Here is where agency rests, when individuality can either trust itself as a valid, effective anchor in the social, occupational, and emotional storms of adulthood, or flounder and vacilate in ways that only lead to anxiety and withdrawal, which Erikson's terms the dystony of 'isolation'.

For #7 (generativity/stagnation), which comes at midlife, the task is one of 'productive creativity' (1982: 56): to enjoy Self as effective creator/producer of love, work, family, skill, services to others, whatever. If successfully engaged, the result is a stance of outgoing caringness, for oneself and for others (1997:111). If not supported here - if scoffed at, denigrated in this attempt - one can stop trying; and the resulting stagnation becomes a prison of rigid routine. For men this is often called 'workaholism'.

Although he doesn't distinguish between what 'work' may mean for women and men, Erikson sees stage #8 (integrity/despair) as coming at 'retirement' from the pattern that has come before. This stage is characterized either by independence, autonomy, and self-disciplined choicefulness with respect to generativity of activities, self care, and relationships; or by regret for lost opportunities, failure to see meaning and goodness and worth in what one has achieved in the past, and therefore disengagement from the on-going experiences of every day.

It is interesting that Joan Erikson posits #9, the final and posthumous dichotomy, as dystonic/isotonic - disgust/ wisdom - rather than the other way around (isotonic/ dystonic), which had been the mode for so many years. She does this intentionally to stress the power of dystonia, particularly at this final stage of life, as one faces the inevitability of death. Here one can either validate one's previous accomplishments and meanings, or reject them as 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing ...' (Erikson 1997).

Constructing 'lifelong learning' along Eriksonian lines

Although his theory grew out of and aimed at psychotheraputic practice, I would like to offer a few examples of how the above schema might be useful for those of us struggling, on personal as well as professional levels, to understand and resolve the conundrums of this 'postmodern' age.

Living with paradox: Erikson posits that 'resolution' of each successive crisis means not denial of one or another side of the respective dichotomies but balance, albeit in favor of positive rather than negative ends. This provides conceptual grist for engaging socially-constructed binaries like female/male, black/white, able/disabled, good/bad that are destructive for individuals as well as for society.

Acceptance of paradox and diversity requires being able to see the value of all sides while validating one's own stance within the holistic schema.

Re-constructing identities: Another example of Erikson's salience for adult education is his assertion of identity as constructed through interaction between the individual and

her/his sociocultural context. Thus, whether s/he grows up to be a psychologically healthy, contributing human being depends on whether social demands and expectations from the embedding cultural environment support or interfere with propensities to engage the sequential challenges of development. Erikson argues that the responsibility of education is to support, not hinder, maturation and integrity (1964). If this does not happen - if one's positive/isotonic development is interfered with - one either begins to move down a negative/dystonic path, or opts out of the process altogether.

Shifting from theory to practice, my experience suggests that more folks than we realize may be withdrawing from the fray in self-protection rather than giving up completely.

This means that they can also re-emerge, when the social context either compels or encourages them to re-engage growth. This can happen at any time; but such reengagement -sometimes many years after whatever led them down the sloping path is a distant memory - is more possible if supports are offered when the cultural scripts of the past cease to work - as in the case of divorce.

A group I've been working with in Ithaca has been designing a 'divorce recovery program', based on just this premise. Their idea is to take participants - in this case women - back through Erikson's developmental steps, to rework ways to meet each 'crisis' and move sequentially forward toward wholeness. Like many retreat-based personal growth programs, they would invite the 'inner child' to (1) experience receiving care from others; (2) take risks to voice one's thoughts and be affirmed for doing so; (3) initiate some activity or thought that fellow retreat participants validate as successful in its outcomes; (4) create something - a dance, poem, box, whatever - that both functions therapeutically for the creator and is admired by other participants; (5) name and claim oneself through 'I' statements, and have these statements accepted and affirmed; and (6) give and receive care both from other people in the program and from oneself, perhaps even from the environment - if taking time to listen to the wind in pine trees on a late summer afternoon in the golden woods of central New York can be so construed. And thereby find peace. And courage to return to the 'real' world and reengage one's life more whole, more confident of one's integrity.

Transformative learning

Erikson's theory has value not just for showing how we construct individualized, humanistic learning but also for the role of transformative learning in social change movements. What is salient here is his insistence on contextuality as process: on how growth engages larger cultural forces that must be understood and grappled with before society, like individuals, can find 'integrity' (resolution of stage 8) or 'wisdom' (stage 9).

Erikson was himself a refugee, from Hitler's Germany, and acutely aware of how divorce from one's anchoring culture challenges one's capacities for achieving and maintaining identity and integrity. Much of his writing explores interactions between individuality and historical exigencies - Luther (1958), Gandhi (1969); the Oglala Dakota(1945), who in losing their ritual 'dream quest' were left with no trustworthy guide for finding their way through life. The socio-historical context is what is important here: like uprooted individuals , whole cultures - as with the Oglala - have little chance to successfully navigate the stages of psychosocial development unless the larger forces mitigating for and against them are brought into the light, assessed critically, and reconstructed in such a way as to serve generative ('isotonic') rather than dystonic ends.

Not doing this is a threat to efficacy and integrity for society at large, in that 'society' is a collective of individuals who mutually construct, affirm, and reproduce culture.

(Geertz 1973) 'True identity', Erikson writes in Identity and Uprootedness in Our Time, 'depends on the support which the ... individual receives from the collective sense of identity characterizing the social groups significant to him (or her): his class, his nation, his culture': Wherever history and technological developments severely encroach upon deeply rooted or strongly emerging identities (i.e., agrarian, feudal, patrician [or postmodern]) on a large scale, youth feels endangered, individually and collectively, whereupon it becomes ready to support doctrines offering a total immersion in a synthetic identity (extreme nationalism, racism, or class consciousness) and a collective condemnation of a totally stereotyped enemy of the new identity. The fear of loss of identity which fosters such indoctrination contributes significantly to that mixture of righteousness and criminality which under totalitarian conditions becomes available for organized terror and for the establishment of major industries of extermination. Since conditions undermining a sense of identity also fixate older individuals on adolescent alternatives, a great number of adults fall in line or are paralyzed in their resistance.

(1964: 93).

And so we get not just Hitler Youth but also passive non-resistance to genocide among 'normal' citizens of the Third Reich. In today's United States, we get Columbine High School and escalation of hate crimes. And we all get Kosovo and Palestine.

Erikson sees the source of all authoritarianisms that work against justice and equity as failure to resolve the adolescent identity crisis on collective and cultural as well as individual levels. He further argues that dystonia at trust/mistrust, autonomy/doubt, initiative/guilt, and even intimacy/ isolation stages can similarly lead to 'historical disaster': ... this reverberation of the individual past in every historical disaster can induce man to submit to unjust suffering, and to accept persecution as part of 'the human condition'. But this also means that we will not erase injustice and persecution until we understand man's inner proclivity to persecute himself and thus to identify himself with his persecutor. (1964: 101-102)

Closing reflections: Erikson foreshadows for the future

Abraham Maslow contends that 'from the philosophy of human nature that people have tucked away in their bones everything follows ...' (1962). Freudian and Behaviorist voices long dominant in western education, posit a humanity essentially formed in reaction to negativity. By extension, societies are aggregates of individuals trying to control and/ or overcome deficits of fear and base human nature through imposition of intellect and enculturation, mediated by social learning. The goal of education in this paradigm is to enable individuals to become what they're not, in the interests of preserving society as a whole.

Maslow, Erikson and fellow 'third force' voices turn this around, reframing the goal as supporting us to become the best of what we are, both individually and collectively.

Education from this stance is not a matter of reinforcing social/political power structures but rather fostering attitudes and capacities for responsible agency within the context of community.

Coming back to the title of this paper, I would join Erikson's voice with one from transformational learning theory (Brookfield 1987; Mezirow 1990, 1991). Weaving together Jack Mezirow's analysis of critical reflection with Erikson's agency/culture dialectic (salted by slight apologiues to Participatory Action Research, or PAR), I would like to posit an integrative concept I refer to in this paper's title as participatory action reflection, or par. In Eriksonian terms, an education based on parprinciples would focus on creating and sustaining co-learning communities committed to fostering individual and societal creativity through a continual dialectic of reflection-action-reflection, aimed at the improvement and fulfillment of human collective as well as individual potential. This sounds idealistic; but if we can harness the dialogics of Erikson's individual/historical framework with action learning and critical reflection practice, it just might work.

Conferences like SCUTREA are important venues for exploring how we might move such dream schemes toward possibility. Our charge in this scenario would be to bring our respective propensities for critical reflection and capacities for action to a collective table - to re-envision and re-construct adult education so that it nurtures these capacities across the lifespan, and across/between/among peoples and cultures. If we can do this - if we can harness the power of such lifetime learning - we might end up, together, actually transforming not just the way we think, teach, learn, and pursue research, but also ourselves, our communities - and our collective future.

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