Separation and Identity in Adolescence—Erikson and Mahler—some Similarities

FREUD (1905) STATED THAT ONE of the most significant, but also painful psychic achievements of adolescence was the detachment from parental authority. This detachment serves two functions: it allows for and is part of the repudiation of incestuous fantasies; and it permits the development of a new generation with new ideas, and thus furthers civilization. Further, it has an evolutionary function, insofar as it prohibits inbreeding, which would eventually destroy the human race. While Freud did not expand or explain what made the separation so difficult and painful for the adolescent, one factor must certainly be the extended period of dependency of the individual on the family, particularly in our society, where the dependency in childhood and adolescence is enforced by social, economic and educational reasons. This transition from childhood dependency to adult identity often contains one of the central conflicts in adolescence.

This paper will explore some of the ways in which this transition occurs and examine the similarities of the work of Mahler, et al.(1975) on separation-individuation in early childhood, with Erikson's work (1968) on identity crisis and formation in adolescence.6

The structural and dynamic aspects of adolescent individuation and identity formation have been dealt with extensively by both Blos (1962), (1967) and Jacobson (1964), and will not be reviewed here. Both authors, however, have made pertinent comments