''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 developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity cr ...
. 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, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
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.
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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, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
gave Erikson the idea that while ''once born'' people conform, ''en masse'', painlessly to the consensus reality
Consensus reality is that which is generally agreed to be reality, based on a consensus view.
The appeal to consensus arises from the idea that humans do not fully understand or agree upon the nature of knowledge or ontology, often making it unce ...
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.[
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Reception
The critic Frederick Crews
Frederick Campbell Crews (born 20 February 1933) is an American essayist and literary critic. Professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Crews is the author of numerous books, including ''The Tragedy of Manners: M ...
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 Sch ...
called the book "pioneering though severely flawed", noting that it received a "devastating review" from the church historian Roland Bainton
Roland Herbert Bainton (March 30, 1894 – February 13, 1984) was a British-born American Protestant church historian.
Life
Bainton was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, and came to the United States in 1902. He received an AB degree f ...
.
The author Richard Webster compared ''Young Man Luther'' to the classicist Norman O. Brown
Norman Oliver Brown (September 25, 1913 – October 2, 2002) was an American scholar, writer, and social philosopher. Beginning as a classical scholar, his later work branched into wide-ranging, erudite, and intellectually sophisticated cons ...
's ''Life Against Death
''Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History'' (1959; second edition 1985) is a book by the American classicist Norman O. Brown, in which the author offers a radical analysis and critique of the work of Sigmund Freud, tries to pro ...
'' (1959), observing that both works point to similarities between Luther's view of the human condition and psychoanalysis.
See also
* Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
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 books
Martin Luther
Psychology books