Louis and I Before Social Distancing

This week’s blogs have been about discovering our truest selves. That’s damn hard work for any of us. But it seems to me that it’s especially challenging for youngsters trying to figure it out during COVID19.

My oldest grandson Louis is thirteen, an age typically associated with lots of identity confusion.

Erik Erikson, the famous psychologist who created an eight-stage psychosocial theory of human development, argued that our personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of development, from infancy to adulthood. According to Erikson, the main psychosocial task for the adolescent is to develop his individuality. He does this primarily through social interactions with his peers.

How can Louis do this when he is essentially grounded at home with his parents and away from his peer group?

Heart-breaking.