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Stages in human psychology
The teacher asked, “When is your birthday”. The student answered: “13th October”. The teacher again questioned: “Which year?” The over smart student smiled: “Every year”. The teacher was silent for a minute and said, “I am not asking about the anniversaries. When is your birthday?” We were discussing Erickson’s developmental stages in human psychology. The fifth stage is ‘Identity Vs role confusion’ that occurs during adolescence and say approximately till 25 years. If this stage is mastered successfully, the young individual enters adulthood with a solid sense of identity. On the contrary extreme cases may lead to ‘I am ok - you are not ok’ stage. Not talking properly with parents, disrespect to elders, arguments, rash driving without following traffic rules, yielding to vices, teasing etc are the symptoms. Some people sleep and dream of success... while others wake up and work at it -- is an old quote.
Adulthood: Intimacy Vs isolation refers to the task of learning to live, honour commitments, loyalty to the family and trustworthiness to other people. It is otherwise called ‘I am ok – you are ok’ stage. Some people never enter this stage of life. At the next stage, the focus starts shifting from personal accomplishments to the concern for the rest of the society. Whether a person becomes greedy or philanthropic is finally decided at this stage. Vivekananda said, “The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life.” It is more important than the past, the education, the money, the appearance, skill and the failures and successes or what other people think. It may break a company, a temple, or a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude. We cannot change the past. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the single string we have and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 per cent what happens to me and 90 per cent of how I reacted to it.
Integrity Vs despair is the last of the eight stages that takes place between 60 and death. If this stage is successfully mastered, the individual arrives at a peaceful acceptance of his or her mortality without losing interest in life, face the inevitability of death with equanimity and without fear. People who never know this principle can never understand that the shortest road to death is being idle.
(Concluded)
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STAYING FOCUSSED: Having the right attitude towards things holds key to a successful life.