Chapter 7 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory 207time of loving cooperation and hateful resistance. This obstinate insistence on
conflicting impulses triggers the major psychosocial crisis of childhood—autonomy
versus shame and doubt (Erikson, 1968).
Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt
If early childhood is a time for self-expression and autonomy, then it is also a time
for shame and doubt. As children stubbornly express their anal-urethral-muscular
mode, they are likely to find a culture that attempts to inhibit some of their self-
expression. Parents may shame their children for soiling their pants or for making
a mess with their food. They may also instill doubt by questioning their children’s
ability to meet their standards. The conflict between autonomy and shame and
doubt becomes the major psychosocial crisis of early childhood.
Ideally, children should develop a proper ratio between autonomy and shame
and doubt, and the ratio should be in favor of autonomy, the syntonic quality of
early childhood. Children who develop too little autonomy will have difficulties in
subsequent stages, lacking the basic strengths of later stages.
According to Erikson’s epigenetic diagrams (see Figures 7.1 and 7.2), auton-
omy grows out of basic trust; and if basic trust has been established in infancy,
then children learn to have faith in themselves, and their world remains intact while
they experience a mild psychosocial crisis. Conversely, if children do not develop
basic trust during infancy, then their attempts to gain control of their anal, urethral,
and muscular organs during early childhood will be met with a strong sense of
shame and doubt, setting up a serious psychosocial crisis. Shame is a feeling of self-
consciousness, of being looked at and exposed. Doubt, on the other hand, is the
feeling of not being certain, the feeling that something remains hidden and cannot
be seen. Both shame and doubt are dystonic qualities, and both grow out of the
basic mistrust that was established in infancy.
Will: The Basic Strength of Early Childhood
The basic strength of will or willfulness evolves from the resolution of the crisis of
autonomy versus shame and doubt. This step is the beginning of free will and
willpower—but only a beginning. Mature willpower and a significant measure of
free will are reserved for later stages of development, but they originate in the
rudimentary will that emerges during early childhood. Anyone who has spent much
time around 2-year-olds knows how willful they can be. Toilet training often
epitomizes the conflict of wills between adult and child, but willful expression is not
limited to this area. The basic conflict during early childhood is between the child’s
striving for autonomy and the parent’s attempts to control the child through the use
of shame and doubt.
Children develop will only when their environment allows them some self-
expression in their control of sphincters and other muscles. When their experiences
result in too much shame and doubt, children do not adequately develop this sec-
ond important basic strength. Inadequate will is expressed as compulsion, the core
pathology of early childhood. Too little will and too much compulsivity carry
forward into the play age as lack of purpose and into the school age as lack of
confidence.