The Eight Stages of Life

In the first year let hope prevail
Make trust the overview
To let a baby feel so safe
To then depend on you.

From one to three imbue a will
Of self-sufficiency
Responding to the children’s need
Promote autonomy

From three to six avail purpose
And then self-starting ways
Initiating enterprise
In how they work and play

From six to ten plus one then build
A competence so true
Rewarding efforts to give pride
Achievement’s focussed view

Then into adolescence make
Coherent sense of “me”
That integrates the past to next
For strong fidelity

In early adult years enroot
Values that share and care
Still being faithful to oneself
With love put right in there

Next into middle adulthood
Preserve a legacy
For future generations by
Generativity

Before the later years of life
Look back fulfilled; complete
With satisfaction on a life
Content at such a feat!

This poem is based on Erik Erikson’s eight stages of identity development theorised in 1950 as part of his psychosocial theory of identity.  Erikson was a psychoanalyst, and the first theorist to view identity as psychosocial.  

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