''Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History'' is a 1958 book by the psychologist
Erik Erikson
Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen; 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-American child psychoanalyst and visual artist known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis.
...
. It was one of the first
psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson found in
Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
a good model of his discovery of "the identity crisis". Erikson was sure he could explain Luther's spontaneous eruption, during a monastery choir practice, "I am not!"
[ Butler-Bowdon, Tom (2007), ''50 Psychology Classics: Who We Are, How We Think, What We Do; Insight and Inspiration From 50 Key Books''. London & Boston: Nicholas Brealey, pp. 324. .
ch. 14]
According to Erikson, Luther suffered through an environment that fomented crisis, and succeeded in a healthy resolution, thereby becoming more fulfilled than if the crisis had not been experienced. In the end Luther chose the obedient, provincial leadership path his father had wished for him, rather than the national fame he could have easily pursued after his celebrity and wealth, but only after Luther had disobeyed and suffered many years in an identity crisis.
[
]
Summary
Erikson believed that rebellion is most likely to manifest in the youth stage of life. He suggested that before the rebellion can occur intensely, young people must first have believed in the thing they are rebelling against. Luther was thirty-four, and he had believed desperately in the authority of the very church he was rebelling against, for failing to follow the Bible. The most vocal critic will have been the most devoted and attached.
Erikson's interpretation of Martin Luther's life is that "great figures of history often spend years in a passive state. From a young age, they feel they will create a big stamp on the world, but unconsciously they wait for their particular truth to form itself in their minds, until they can make the most impact at the right time.[
Erikson makes the point that Martin's standing up to a Holy Roman Church can only be understood in the context of his initial disobedience to his father. Luther was ''not'', Erikson suggests, rebellious or disobedient by nature,][ but having done it once, he was the reluctant "expert" who was not. He also observes that although Martin Luther made a theological point, the church was not particularly out of line with the times of the era, but it was simply Martin Luther's own personal, internal issues with himself, that manifested against the church, and by projection, a crisis of identity.][
Erikson identifies a ''second birth'' with the identity crisis when it is successfully maneuvered. ]William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...
gave Erikson the idea that while ''once born'' people conform, ''en masse'', painlessly to the consensus reality
Consensus reality refers to the generally agreed-upon version of reality within a community or society, shaped by shared experiences and understandings. This understanding arises from the inherent differences in individual perspectives or subjec ...
of the age, ''twice born'' people get ''their'' direction by enduring an identity crisis of such tortuous magnitude that their souls are transformed and permanently fixed into a direction as such as a reformer role for that time for that society. In Martin's case it was a "good son" vs. "good monk" crisis that gave him direction to play the good reformer of the bad church for having more concern for filling their coffers at the expense of the very souls for whom it was their true calling and their spiritual leadership role to properly attend to by the word of the Bible, and not by the whim of the institution's temporal needs.[
]
Reception
The critic Frederick Crews called ''Young Man Luther'' "one of the most challenging books that attempt a psychoanalytic understanding of historical problems." The historian Peter Gay
Peter Joachim Gay ( né Fröhlich ; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for ...
called the book "pioneering though severely flawed", noting that it received a "devastating review" from the church historian Roland Bainton.
The author Richard Webster compared ''Young Man Luther'' to the classicist Norman O. Brown's '' Life Against Death'' (1959), observing that both works point to similarities between Luther's view of the human condition and psychoanalysis.
See also
* Reformation
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
References
External links
Commentary on ''Young Man Luther'' from ''50 Psychology Classics'' (2007)
{{Portal bar, Biography, Christianity, Psychology
1958 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Books by Erik Erikson
English-language non-fiction books
Martin Luther
Psychology books
Biographical books about religious figures