Erik_H_Erikson_Identity_Youth_and_Crisis

Ideniy
4.®
Now let us take a look ahead from the vantage point of
twenty years ago and, forgetting concepts and clinics, see the
youth of today. Youth, in any period, means irst of all the
noisier and more obvious part of that subrace, plus the quiet
suferers who come to the attention of psychiatrists or are
broughttolifebythenovelists.Inthemostpicturesquesegment
of the younger generation we are witnessing an exacerbated
"identity-consciousness" which seems to play havoc not only
withourformulationsofthepositiveandnegativeidentity,but
alsowithourassumptionsconcerningmanifestandlatentbehaviorandconsciousandunconsciousprocesses.Whatappearstous
tobeprofoundly relative is displayedby them as a relativistic
"stance."
The youth oftoday is not the youth of twenty years ago.
This much any elderly person would say, at any point in
istory,andthinkitwasbothnewandtrue.Butherewemean
somethingveryspciicallyrelatedtoourtheories.Forwhereas
twenty years ago we gingerly suggested that some young
peoplemightbesuferingfromamoreorlessunconsciousidentityconlict,acertaintypetodaytellsusinnouncertainterms,
andwiththedramaticouterdisplayofwhatweonceconsidered
tobeinnersecrets,thatyes,indeed,theyhaveanidentityconlict-and
they wearitontheir sleeves, Edwardian orleathet.
Sexualidentityconfusion?Ys,indeed;sometimeswhenwesee
them walking down the ~reet it is impossible for us to tell,
withoutindelicatescrutiny,whoisaboyandwhoisagirl.Neg­
ative identity? Oh yes, they seem to want to be everything
which"society"tellsthemnottobe: inthis,atleast,they"conform."Andasforsuchfancytermsaspsychosocialmoratorium,
theywillcertainlytaketheirtime,andtakeitwithavengeance,
untiltheyaresurewhetheror nottheywantanyoftheidentityoferedinaconformistworld.
Butis whatthey lay claimtoexactlywhatwemeant?And
havewe and what we meant not also changed with the same