Young Man Luther
1958 book by Erik H. Erikson
Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History is a 1958 book by the psychologist Erik Erikson. It was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson found in Martin Luther 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!"
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 gave Erikson the idea that while "once born" people conform, "en masse", painlessly to the consensus reality 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 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.
References.
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Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
Eight-stage model of psychoanalytic development
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated in the second half of the 20th century by Erik Erikson in collaboration with Joan Erikson, is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages that a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood.
According to Erikson's theory the results from each stage, whether positive or negative, influence the results of succeeding stages. Erikson published a book called "Childhood and Society" in 1950 that highlighted his research on the eight stages of psychosocial development. Erikson was originally influenced by Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stages of development. He began by working with Freud's theories specifically, but as he began to dive deeper into biopsychosocial development and how other environmental factors affect human development, he soon progressed past Freud's theories and developed his own ideas. Erikson developed different substantial ways to create a theory about lifespan he theorized about the nature of personality development as it unfolds from birth through old age or death. He argued that the social experience was valuable throughout our life to each stage that can be recognizable by a conflict specifically as we encounter between the psychological needs and the surroundings of the social environment.
Erikson's stage theory characterizes an individual advancing through the eight life stages as a function of negotiating their biological and sociocultural forces. The two conflicting forces each have a psychosocial crisis which characterizes the eight stages. If an individual does indeed successfully reconcile these forces (favoring the first mentioned attribute in the crisis), they emerge from the stage with the corresponding virtue. For example, if an infant enters into the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame and doubt) with more trust than mistrust, they carry the virtue of hope into the remaining life stages. The stage challenges that are not successfully overcome may be expected to return as problems in the future. However, mastery of a stage is not required to advance to the next stage. In one study, subjects showed significant development as a result of organized activities.
Psychological periodization of stages of human development.
Hope: trust vs. mistrust (oral-sensory, infancy, under 1 year).
The first stage of Erik Erikson's theory centers around the infant's basic needs being met by the parents or caregiver and how this interaction leads to trust or mistrust. Trust as defined by Erikson is "an essential trustfulness of others as well as a fundamental sense of one's own trustworthiness." The infant depends on the parents, especially the mother, for sustenance and comfort. Infants will often use methods such as pointing to indicate their interests or desires to their parents or caregivers. The child's relative understanding of the world and society comes from the parents and their interaction with the child. Children first learn to trust their parents or a caregiver. If the parents expose their child to warmth, security, and dependable affection, the infant's view of the world will be one of trust. As the child learns to trust the world around them, they also acquire the virtue of hope. Should parents fail to provide a secure environment and to meet the child's basic needs; a sense of mistrust will result. Development of mistrust can later lead to feelings of frustration, suspicion, withdrawal, and a lack of confidence.
According to Erik Erikson, the major developmental task in infancy is to learn whether or not other people, especially primary caregivers, regularly satisfy basic needs. If caregivers are consistent sources of food, comfort, and affection, an infant learns trust — that others are dependable and reliable. If they are neglectful, or perhaps even abusive, the infant instead learns mistrust — that the world is an undependable, unpredictable, and possibly a dangerous place. Having some experience with mistrust allows the infant to gain an understanding of what constitutes dangerous situations later in life. However, infants and toddlers should not be subjected to prolonged situations of mistrust. This causes children to be ill adjusted later in life and see life with a cautious and careful outlook, which can be detrimental later in their life. In this stage, the child's most important needs are to feel safe, comforted, and well cared for.
This stage is where a child learns an attachment style to their caregiver. The attachment style the child develops can affect their relationships through the rest of their life. For example, if the infant is hungry, will it be fed? If their diaper got soiled, would anybody change it? If they're sad, will they be comforted? The infant's mind would tell if the world is a trustworthy place with trustworthy people. Infants need protection and support from the familiar adult; otherwise, they will most likely not survive. This concept was studied more by Bowlby and Ainsworth in their attachment theory which is consistent with Erikson's research.
Will: autonomy vs. shame/doubt (muscular, toddlerhood, 1–2 years).
As the child gains control over eliminative functions and motor abilities, they begin to explore their surroundings. Parents still provide a strong base of security from which the child can venture out to assert their will. The parents' patience and encouragement help to foster autonomy in the child. During early childhood, the child will start to have learning tasks and skills that instill personal responsibility, which allows the children to make choices that could help them develop a sense of autonomy and confidence. Children at this age like to explore the world around them and they are constantly learning about their environment. Caution must be taken at this age while children may explore things that are dangerous to their health and safety.
At this age, children develop their first interests. For example, a child who enjoys music may like to play with the radio. Children who enjoy the outdoors may be interested in animals and plants. Highly restrictive parents are more likely to instill in the child a sense of doubt, and reluctance to try new and challenging opportunities. As the child gains increased muscular coordination and mobility, toddlers become capable of satisfying some of their own needs. They begin to feed themselves, wash and dress themselves, and use the bathroom.
If caregivers encourage self-sufficient behavior, toddlers will develop a sense of autonomy—a sense of being able to handle many problems on their own. On the contrary, there is the possibility that the caregiver can demand too much too soon. This will likely lead the child to develop shame and doubt in their ability to handle problems. This shame and doubt could also come as a result of a caregiver ridiculing a child's early performance attempts. There is definitely a delicate balance to be had with autonomy. If the child receives too much autonomy, they have the potential to grow up with little concern for rules or regulations. This could also increase the likelihood of injury. Conversely, if the parents exert too much control over them, the child can grow up to be more rebellious and impulsive. The abilities of the child are limited.
Purpose: initiative vs. guilt (locomotor-genital, early childhood, 3–6 years).
Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of planning, undertaking, and attacking a task for the sake of just being active and on the move. The child is learning to master the world around them, learning basic skills and principles of physics. Things fall down, not up, round things roll. They learn how to zip and tie, count and speak with ease. At this stage, the child wants to begin and complete their own actions for a purpose. Guilt is a confusing new emotion. They may feel guilty over things that logically should not cause guilt. They may feel guilt when this initiative does not produce desired results.
The development of courage and independence are what set preschoolers, ages three to six years of age, apart from other age groups. Young children in this category face the psychological crisis of initiative versus guilt. This includes learning how to face complexities of planning and developing a sense of judgment. During this stage, the child learns to take initiative and prepares for leadership roles, and to achieve goals. Activities sought out by a child in this stage may include risk-taking behaviors, such as crossing a street alone or riding a bike without a helmet; both these examples involve self-limits. The child may also develop negative behaviors as they learn to take initiative. These negative behaviors, such as throwing objects, hitting, or yelling, can be a result of the child feeling frustrated after not being able to achieve a goal as planned.
Preschoolers are increasingly able to accomplish tasks on their own and can explore new areas. With this growing independence comes many choices about activities to be pursued. Sometimes children take on projects they can readily accomplish, but at other times they undertake projects that are beyond their capabilities or that interfere with other people's plans and activities. If parents and preschool teachers encourage and support children's efforts, while also helping them make realistic and appropriate choices, children develop initiative—independence in planning and undertaking activities. But if instead, adults discourage the pursuit of independent activities or dismiss them as silly and bothersome, children develop guilt about their needs and desires.
Competence: industry vs. inferiority (latency, late childhood, 7–10 years).
The aim of this stage is to bring a productive situation to completion which gradually supersedes the whims and wishes of play. The fundamentals of technology are developed. The failure to master trust, autonomy, and industrious skills may cause the child to doubt their future, leading to shame, guilt, and the experience of defeat and inferiority.
The child must deal with demands to learn new skills or risk a sense of inferiority, failure, and incompetence. In doing so, children are able to start contributing to society and making a difference in the world. They become more aware of themselves and how competent, or not, they are.
"Children at this age are becoming more aware of themselves as individuals." They work hard at "being responsible, being good and doing it right." They are now more reasonable to share and cooperate. Allen and Marotz (2003) also list some perceptual cognitive developmental traits specific for this age group. Children grasp the concepts of space and time in more logical, practical ways. They gain a better understanding of cause and effect, and of calendar time. At this stage, children are eager to learn and accomplish more complex skills: reading, writing, telling time. They also get to form moral values, recognize cultural and individual differences and are able to manage most of their personal needs and grooming with minimal assistance. At this stage, children might express their independence by talking back and being disobedient and rebellious.
Erikson viewed the elementary school years as critical for the development of self-confidence. Ideally, elementary school provides many opportunities to achieve the recognition of teachers, parents and peers by producing things—drawing pictures, solving addition problems, writing sentences, and so on. If children are encouraged to make and do things and are then praised for their accomplishments, they begin to demonstrate industry by being diligent, persevering at tasks until completed, and putting work before pleasure. If children are instead ridiculed or punished for their efforts or if they find they are incapable of meeting their teachers' and parents' expectations, they develop feelings of inferiority about their capabilities.
Children also begin to make relationships with others around them. Being social is especially important for this stage. It helps school aged children become either more or less confident about themselves and their abilities. Also, during this age, children also begin to migrate into their own social groups. Depending on the child's "group", the child will have more or less self confidence.
At this age, children start recognizing their special talents and continue to discover interests as their education improves. They may begin to choose to do more activities to pursue that interest, such as joining a sport if they know they have athletic ability, or joining the band if they are good at music. If not allowed to discover their own talents in their own time, they will develop a sense of lack of motivation, low self-esteem, and lethargy. They may become "couch potatoes" if they are not allowed to develop interests.
Fidelity: identity vs. role confusion (adolescence, 11–19 years).
The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others. Superego identity is the accrued confidence that the outer sameness and continuity prepared in the future are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for oneself, as evidenced in the promise of a career. The ability to settle on a school or occupational identity is pleasant. In later stages of adolescence, the child develops a sense of sexual identity. Adolescents become curious about the roles they will play in the adult world as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Initially, they are apt to experience some role confusion—mixed ideas and feelings about the specific ways in which they will fit into society—and may experiment with a variety of behaviors and activities (e.g. tinkering with cars, baby-sitting for neighbors, affiliating with certain political or religious groups). Eventually, Erikson proposed, most adolescents achieve a sense of identity regarding who they are and where their lives are headed.
The teenager must achieve identity in occupation, gender roles, politics, and, in some cultures, religion. This is not always easy, however. The teenager must seek to find their place in this world and to find out how they can contribute to the world.
Erikson is credited with coining the term "identity crisis". He describes identity crisis as a critical part of development in which an adolescent or youth develops a sense of self. Identity crisis involves the integration of the physical self, personality, potential roles and occupations. It is influenced by culture and historical trends. This stage is necessary for the successful development of future stages. Each stage that came before and that follows has its own 'crisis', but even more so now, for this marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. This passage is necessary because "Throughout infancy and childhood, a person forms many identifications. But the need for identity in youth is not met by these." This turning point in human development seems to be the reconciliation between 'the person one has come to be' and 'the person society expects one to become'. This emerging sense of self will be established by 'forging' past experiences with anticipations of the future. In relation to the eight life stages as a whole, the fifth stage corresponds to the crossroads:
What is unique about the stage of Identity, is that it is a special sort of synthesis of earlier stages and a special sort of anticipation of later ones. Youth has a certain unique quality in a person's life; it is a bridge between childhood and adulthood. Youth is a time of radical change—the great body changes accompanying puberty, the ability of the mind to search one's own intentions and the intentions of others, the suddenly sharpened awareness of the roles society has offered for later life.
Adolescents "are confronted by the need to re-establish boundaries for themselves and to do this in the face of an often potentially hostile world". This is often challenging since commitments are being asked for before particular identity roles have formed. At this point, one is in a state of 'identity confusion', but society normally makes allowances for youth to "find themselves", and this state is called 'the moratorium':
The problem of adolescence is one of role confusion—a reluctance to commit which may haunt a person into his mature years. Given the right conditions—and Erikson believes these are essentially having enough space and time, a psychosocial moratorium, when a person can freely experiment and explore—what may emerge is a firm sense of identity, an emotional and deep awareness of who they are.
As in other stages, bio-psycho-social forces are at work. No matter how one has been raised, one's personal ideologies are now chosen for oneself. Often, this leads to conflict with adults over religious and political orientations. Another area where teenagers are deciding for themselves is their career choice, and often parents want to have a decisive say in that role. If society is too insistent, the teenager will acquiesce to external wishes, effectively forcing him or her to ‘foreclose' on experimentation and, therefore, true self-discovery. Once someone settles on a worldview and vocation, will they be able to integrate this aspect of self-definition into a diverse society? According to Erikson, when an adolescent has balanced both perspectives of "What have I got?" and "What am I going to do with it?" they have established their identity:
Dependent on this stage is the ego quality of "fidelity—the ability to sustain loyalties freely pledged in spite of the inevitable contradictions and confusions of value systems". (Italics in original)
Leaving past childhood and facing the unknown of adulthood is a component of adolescence. Another characteristic of this stage is moratorium which tends to end as adulthood begins. Given that the next stage (Intimacy) is often characterized by marriage, many are tempted to cap off the fifth stage at 20 years of age. However, these age ranges are actually quite fluid, especially for the achievement of identity, since it may take many years to become grounded, to identify the object of one's fidelity, to feel that one has "come of age". In the biographies "Young Man Luther" and "Gandhi's Truth", Erikson determined that their crises ended at ages 25 and 30, respectively:
Erikson does note that the time of Identity crisis for persons of genius is frequently prolonged. He further notes that in our industrial society, identity formation tends to be long, because it takes us so long to gain the skills needed for adulthood's tasks in our technological world. So… there is not exact time span in which to find oneself. It does not happen automatically at eighteen or at twenty-one. A "very" approximate rule of thumb for our society would put the end somewhere in one's twenties.
Love: intimacy vs. isolation (early adulthood, 20–45 years).
The Intimacy versus Isolation conflict occurs following adolescence. At the start of this stage, identity versus role confusion is coming to an end, although it still lingers at the foundation of the stage. The stage doesn't always involve a romantic relationship but includes the strong bonds with others being formed. Young adults are still eager to blend their identities with those of their friends because they want to fit in. Erikson believes that people are sometimes isolated due to intimacy. People are afraid of rejections such as being turned down or their partners breaking up with them. Human beings are familiar with pain, and to some people, rejection is so painful that their egos cannot bear it. Erikson also argues that distantiation occurs with intimacy. Distantiation is the desire to isolate or destroy things that may be dangerous to one's own ideals or life. This can occur if a person has their intimate relationship invaded by outsiders.
Once people have established their identities, they are ready to make long-term commitments to others. They become capable of forming intimate, reciprocal relationships (e.g. through close friendships or marriage) and willingly make the sacrifices and compromises that such relationships require. Those in more advanced stages of identity development are often associated with greater success pertaining to intimacy formation. If people cannot form these intimate relationships—perhaps because of their own needs—then a sense of isolation may result, thereby arousing feelings of darkness and angst.
Erikson’s documentation of his theory spends time considering intimacy between 2 people. The main conflict is whether an individual is willing to give themselves up to someone else. As suggested in the previous paragraphs, it seems that it could be very valuable for someone at this stage to let go of some of their fears in order to gain a solid relationship with another person. Erickson discusses the differences of his theory as compared to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development. Freud tended to focus more on sexual gratification without deep personal relationships being involved. Erikson’s proposal suggests that there is more to intimacy than sexual gratification. There is value in the deep bonds that can be shared between two people socially. Erikson, in his writing, does still discuss and see the value of sexual relations within a socially intimate relationship.
Care: generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood, 45–64 years).
Generativity is the concern of guiding the next generation. Socially-valued work and disciplines are expressions of generativity.
The adult stage of generativity has broad application to family, relationships, work, and society. "Generativity, then is primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation... the concept is meant to include... productivity and creativity."
During middle age, the primary developmental task is one of contributing to society and helping to guide future generations. When a person makes a contribution during this period, perhaps by raising a family or working toward the betterment of society, a sense of generativity—a sense of productivity and accomplishment—results. In contrast, a person who is self-centered and unable or unwilling to help society move forward develops a feeling of stagnation—a dissatisfaction with the relative lack of productivity. People in this stage consider what they are leaving behind for their posterity and community, as they are coming closer to the end of their life. The virtue that is related with this stage is care. In contrary, the maladaptive virtue is rejectivity.
As shared in the quote above, productivity and creativity are announced as being related to generativity. Despite this relation, Erikson hopes that those two words don’t take away from the main message. That message being that generativity is focusing on helping other people. Our society can sometimes hyperfixate on the idea that children need parents. Erikson shares and reinforces another view. Adults need children. The effort that is given to the children can help the adult become more mature. On top of that, as an adult is generative to youth, it can influence the children to return the favor when they grow up.
Central tasks of middle adulthood
*Express love through more than sexual contacts.
* Maintain healthy life patterns.
* Develop a sense of unity with mate.
* Help growing and grown children to be responsible adults.
* Relinquish central role in lives of grown children.
* Accept children's mates and friends.
* Create a comfortable home.
* Be proud of accomplishments of self and mate/spouse.
* Reverse roles with aging parents.
* Achieve mature, civic and social responsibility.
* Adjust to physical changes of middle age.
* Use leisure time creatively.
Wisdom: ego integrity vs. despair (late adulthood, 65 years and above).
As people grow older and become senior citizens, they tend to slow down their productivity and explore life as a retired person. Factors such as leisure activities and family involvement play a significant role in the life of a retiree and their adjustment to living without having to perform specific duties each day pertaining to their career. Even during this stage of adulthood, however, they are still developing. The association between aging and retirement can bring about a reappearance of bipolar tensions of earlier stages in Erikson's model, meaning that aspects of previous life stages can reactivate because of the onset of aging and retirement. Development at this stage also includes periods of reevaluation regarding life satisfaction, sustainment of active involvement, and developing a sense of health maintenance. Developmental conflicts may arise in this stage, but psychological growth in earlier stages can help significantly in resolving these conflicts.
It is during this time that they contemplate their accomplishments and evaluate the person that they have become. They are able to develop integrity if they see themselves as leading a successful life. Those that have developed integrity perceive that their lives have meaning. They tend to feel generally satisfied and accept themselves and others. As they near the end of their lives, they are more likely to be at peace about death. If they see their life as unproductive or feel that they did not accomplish their life goals, they become dissatisfied with life and develop despair. This can often lead to feelings of depression and hopelessness. They may also feel that life is unfair and be fearful of dying.
During this time there may be a renewal in interest in many things. This is believed to occur because the individuals in this time of life strive to be autonomous. As their bodies and minds start to deteriorate, they want to find a sense of balance. They will cling to their autonomy so that they will not need to be reliant on others for everything. Erikson explains that it is also important for adults in this stage to maintain relationships with others of different ages in order to develop integrity.
The final developmental task is retrospection: people look back on their lives and accomplishments. Practices such as narrative therapy can help individuals reinterpret their minds pertaining to their past and allow them to focus on the brighter aspects of their lives. They develop feelings of contentment and integrity if they believe that they have led a happy and productive life. If they look back on a life of disappointments and unachieved goals, they may instead develop a sense of despair.
This stage can occur out of the sequence when an individual feels they are near the end of their life (such as when receiving a terminal disease diagnosis).
When looking back on life, a person should hope to find both meaning and order. There are ways to alter or buoy one’s perspective during this stage. Altering or buoying one’s view could bring them closer to ego integrity. With that being said, it is better that a person has already carried out a life with meaning and order prior to beginning this stage.
Erikson ties this stage of development back into the first stage, trust vs mistrust. As shared by Erikson, the Webster dictionary once claimed that trust is “the assured reliance on another’s integrity”. One’s integrity could influence someone else’s trust. If a person at the end of their life fears death, then it could influence children to possibly fear life. If an adult is able to overcome any fears of death, then it can reinforce children to not be afraid of the life ahead of them.
Ninth stage.
Joan Erikson, who married and collaborated with Erik Erikson, added a ninth stage in "The Life Cycle Completed: Extended Version". Living in the ninth stage, she wrote, "old age in one's eighties and nineties brings with it new demands, reevaluations, and daily difficulties". Addressing these new challenges requires "designating a new ninth stage". Erikson was ninety-three years old when she wrote about the ninth stage.
Joan Erikson showed that all the eight stages "are relevant and recurring in the ninth stage". In the ninth stage, the psychosocial crises of the eight stages are faced again, but with the quotient order reversed. For example, in the first stage (infancy), the psychosocial crisis was "Trust vs. Mistrust" with Trust being the "syntonic quotient" and Mistrust being the "dystonic". Joan Erikson applies the earlier psychosocial crises to the ninth stage as follows:
"Basic Mistrust vs. Trust: Hope"
In the ninth stage, "elders are forced to mistrust their own capabilities" because one's "body inevitably weakens". Yet, Joan Erikson asserts that "while there is light, there is hope" for a "bright light and revelation".
"Shame and Doubt vs. Autonomy: Will"
Ninth stage elders face the "shame of lost control" and doubt "their autonomy over their own bodies". So it is that "shame and doubt challenge cherished autonomy".
"Inferiority vs. Industry: Competence"
Industry as a "driving force" that elders once had is gone in the ninth stage. Being incompetent "because of aging is belittling" and makes elders "like unhappy small children of great age".
"Identity confusion vs. Identity: Fidelity"
Elders experience confusion about their "existential identity" in the ninth stage and "a real uncertainty about status and role".
"Isolation vs. Intimacy: Love"
In the ninth stage, the "years of intimacy and love" are often replaced by "isolation and deprivation". Relationships become "overshadowed by new incapacities and dependencies".
"Stagnation vs. Generativity: Care"
The generativity in the seventh stage of "work and family relationships", if it goes satisfactorily, is "a wonderful time to be alive". In one's eighties and nineties, there is less energy for generativity or caretaking. Thus, "a sense of stagnation may well take over".
"Despair and Disgust vs. Integrity: Wisdom"
Integrity imposes "a serious demand on the senses of elders". Wisdom requires capacities that ninth stage elders "do not usually have". The eighth stage includes retrospection that can evoke a "degree of disgust and despair". In the ninth stage, introspection is replaced by the attention demanded to one's "loss of capacities and disintegration".
Living in the ninth stage, Joan Erikson expressed confidence that the psychosocial crisis of the ninth stage can be met as in the first stage with the "basic trust" with which "we are blessed".
Development of post-Freudian theory.
Erikson was a student of Anna Freud, the daughter of Sigmund Freud, whose psychoanalytic theory and psychosexual stages contributed to the basic outline of the eight stages, at least those concerned with childhood. Namely, the first four of Erikson's life stages correspond to Freud's oral, anal, phallic, and latency phases, respectively. Also, the fifth stage of adolescence is said to parallel the genital stage in psychosexual development:
Although the first three phases are linked to those of the Freudian theory, it can be seen that they are conceived along very different lines. Emphasis is not so much on sexual modes and their consequences, but on the ego qualities which emerge from each of the stages. There is an attempt also to link the sequence of individual development to the broader context of society.
Erikson saw a dynamic at work throughout life, one that did not stop at adolescence. He also viewed the life stages as a cycle: the end of one generation was the beginning of the next. Seen in its social context, the life stages were linear for an individual but circular for societal development:
In Freud's view, development is largely complete by adolescence. In contrast, one of Freud's students, Erik Erikson (1902–1994) believed that development continues throughout life. Erikson took the foundation laid by Freud and extended it through adulthood and into late life.
Criticism.
One major criticism of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is that it primarily describes the development of European or American males. Erikson's theory may be questioned as to whether his stages must be regarded as sequential, and only occurring within the age ranges he suggests. There is debate as to whether people only search for identity during the adolescent years or if one stage needs to happen before other stages can be completed. However, Erikson states that each of these processes occur throughout the lifetime in one form or another, and he emphasizes these "phases" only because it is at these times that the conflicts become most prominent.
Most empirical research into Erikson has related to his views on adolescence and attempts to establish identity. His theoretical approach was studied and supported, particularly regarding adolescence, by James E. Marcia. Marcia's work has distinguished different forms of identity, and there is some empirical evidence that those people who form the most coherent self-concept in adolescence are those who are most able to make intimate attachments in early adulthood. This supports the part of Eriksonian theory, that suggests that those best equipped to resolve the crisis of early adulthood are those who have most successfully resolved the crisis of adolescence.
Erikson attributed the development of the stages to the presence of specific tensions which may be present at any moment of a person's life. This causes another criticism of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development: that Erikson does not go into detail about what causes these stages of development or how they are resolved. There is little information stated about the experiences that result in how a person develops at each stage. Just as there are vague details about the causes of each theory that does not outline the necessary steps to resolve conflict in order to enter the next stage.
References.
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Anna Luther
American actress (1893–1960)
Anna Luther (July 7, 1893 – December 16, 1960), sometimes credited as Ann Luther or Anne Luther, was an American actress. She was known as "the Poster Girl".
Early life and career.
Anna Luther was born in Newark, New Jersey on July 7, 1893, although some sources give her birthdate as 1894 or 1897, and her burial plot gives the 1897 date. However, she appears on the 1905 census as a 12 year old. She was the youngest of four children to Jacob Luther, who was a New York sewing machine sales representative, and Sarah Limonick, a midwife. Both of her parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia who arrived in the U.S. in 1891. She had two brothers, Elan and Hyman, and a sister, Pauline. She spent her childhood in Newark and Jersey City.
Luther made her film debut in the 1913 short "Hearts of the Dark", followed by "The Fly Leaf of Fate" (1913), and "The Changeling" (1914). Her first feature film was "The Wolf" (1914), which credited her as Ann Luther. She starred with William Garwood in "Her Moment" (1918). Among her other film credits include roles in "Melting Millions" (1917), "The Governor's Lady" (1923), and "Sinners in Silk" (1924). She appeared in 48 films from 1913 to 1957, her final screen appearance being in "The Wayward Bus" (1957), in which she played an uncredited role.
Newspapers described her hair as having an orange hue. In 1915, Motion Picture Classic said Luther had "one of the most magnificent bungalows in California."
Court litigation.
Luther named Peggy Hopkins Joyce as a friend and Los Angeles, California mine operator and millionaire, Jack White, as a lover. White accompanied Luther to California as a theatrical producer. In June 1924 the actress brought a $100,000 breach of contract suit against White for allegedly promising to star her in four motion pictures. In a countersuit White demanded a $10,000 refund spent on the Luther film and charged Luther with having a bad reputation. White contended that he did not violate the Mann Act merely by sharing the same drawing room with Luther on their journey west.
Some of the witnesses anticipated for the trial were Charlie Chaplin, Evelyn Nesbit, Pearl White, and Mabel Normand. White's attorneys brought up the death of murdered silent film director William Desmond Taylor. They claimed Luther told White to pay or "watch out for what happened to Taylor."
During court proceedings Luther admitted paying $2,500 in rent for her place in Great Neck, although she possessed a bank balance of only $141 at the time. White admitted having a contract with Luther but his lawyers succeeded in getting Luther to make a number of admissions which hurt her case. The presiding judge dropped Luther's suit because of her failure to prove a legal contract between herself and White. After the trial's conclusion Luther filed notice of motion for a new trial.
Marriages and scandals.
Luther's first marriage was to the New York attorney Samuel E. Dribben in 1913, but it ended in divorce that same year. She next married Edward Gallagher of the Gallagher and Shean vaudeville comedy team on December 5, 1923. She and Gallagher separated in February 1924, with her husband continuing to play on the road and Luther returning to making motion pictures.
In March 1925 she was named as co-respondent in a lawsuit brought by actress Dagmar Godowsky. Godowsky began divorce proceedings after claiming to have discovered Luther with her husband, actor Frank Mayo, in Mayo's apartment. Luther and Mayo later married, and Mayo's marriage to Godowsky was annulled in 1926 because divorce decree of Frank Mayo and his first wife Joyce Eleanor Moore was never written.
Luther and Juanita Hansen were named as two co-respondents in a divorce suit brought by Evelyn Nesbit against Jack Clifford. Clifford had left Nesbit in 1918, and she divorced him in 1933.
Death.
Luther died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills in 1960 at 63 years old. Her funeral was conducted by Pierce Brothers of Hollywood at Mount Sinai Cemetery Chapel, and she was buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park. Her burial plot gives her name as Anne Luther, and her epitaph reads "Beloved aunt".
References.
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Our Young Man
2016 novel by Edmund White
Our Young Man is a 2016 novel by Edmund White. It is White's 11th novel and was first published by Bloomsbury on April 5, 2016. The plot follows the adventures of Guy, a young man who does not appear to age.
The book received generally positive reviews from critics. Michael Upchurch wrote in "The New York Times" that it contained "winningly hectic prose", though he felt that it was not as compelling as White's previous work, "The Farewell Symphony". In a review for "The Guardian", Neel Mukherjee praised White's descriptions and coverage of the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Eileen Battersby of "The Irish Times" wrote that "[r]eading this novel is similar to walking a tightrope" and favorably compared it to Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
References.
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The Testing of Luther Albright
2005 book
The Testing of Luther Albright is the debut novel by MacKenzie Bezos (who in 2019 changed her name to MacKenzie Scott), published in 2005 by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Plot.
Luther Albright is a civil engineer who designs dams in Sacramento, California. He lives with his wife, Liz, and teenage son, Elliott, in a house that he built. Luther is emotionally reserved with no friends, and the novel traces how this alienates him from his wife and child over the course of Elliott's coming of age.
At the beginning of the novel, an earthquake hits Sacramento while Luther and Elliott spend the summer remodelling the attic. Elliott is entering adolescence, and this project marks a symbolic shift in their relationship. Luther notices that he has started to grow facial hair, and gives Elliott the reins to build and install the plumbing for a new bathroom independently. Elliott starts to test Luther's emotional boundaries, beginning with haphazardly operating power tools.
Elliott chooses Luther's father as his subject for a biography he has to write at school. Throughout their projects, Elliott questions Luther about what his own father was like, and Luther routinely evades these questions. Luther interprets this as Elliott challenging him, and the questions continue throughout the novel.
Luther leaves a shaving set by the sink for Elliott, and the next morning, Elliott comes downstairs completely bald. This shocks Luther and Liz, but they don't react. Around this time, Liz expresses that she worries what she and Luther will talk about once Elliott moves out, and that one day she might realize that she "doesn't know that she doesn't know [Luther]". At work, Luther is given a prestigious corner office, with rumors of a promotion. This frustrates Luther's workplace rival, Belsky.
Luther and Liz are woken one night to the sound of a girl from Elliott's high school calling to him from their yard, and Elliott telling her to leave. Liz invites the girl in, and Luther convinces Elliott to come downstairs to talk to her. Luther and Elliott walk in to see the girl giving Liz a bolder, shorter haircut, and the parents leave the teenagers to talk. The girl eventually becomes Elliott's first girlfriend.
At Elliott's request, Luther brings him to work and introduces him to his colleagues. Luther watches as Elliott jokes around with Belsky about his bald head, and Belsky makes a dig about one of Luther's dams getting a routine inspection following the earthquake. Luther and Elliott go for a drink, and Elliott questions Luther about why he doesn't defend himself against Belsky's criticisms. Elliott then spends more and more time at Belsky's house after befriending his children. This bothers Luther, but he doesn’t interfere with it.
There is a sewage gas leak in the house, and Luther suspects the cause may be from the renovations Elliott did by himself that summer. He doesn't tell Elliott this at risk of offending him. Around this time, Luther wakes Liz up one night to suggest she enroll in training to become a counselor once Elliott moves out, something she has always wanted to do. Liz is insulted, and clarifies she was worried about them as a couple once Elliott leaves, not herself. She does, however, start volunteering at a crisis center, which results in her spending less and less time at home.
Meanwhile, the media begin to cover Luther's dam's routine inspections. Luther receives a phone call from a journalist, whom he evades. Elliott continues to ask Luther questions about his father, specifically asking if there was ever a time his father scared him. Luther continues to avoid the question, but reflects on a time his father came home with a gun, and his estrangement from his father. Luther’s flashbacks interspersed throughout the novel reveal that over time his father’s behaviour became shiftier and that he tried to taunt Luther’s mother, not only by bringing home a gun but also by pretending he was having an affair.
Elliott visits Luther at work and asks him why he hasn't responded to the increasing media criticism about the dam. When Elliott leaves, the journalist calls again, and Luther impulsively tells the journalist that the department is only doing the inspection in order to get funding because there is little other work to do. The next day, Luther's boss threatens to relocate him to Fresno as punishment, but Luther resigns instead.
Luther notices one day when the Belskys pick Elliott up that they have been teaching him how to drive. He surprises Elliott by buying him his first car. Luther continues to receive promising job offers, and turns all of them down, including one from a former colleague, Nathan, whose firm's projects often require overseas travel. Elliott tells Luther that he knows that Belsky got Luther the job offer with Nathan.
When taking out the trash one night, Luther notices the classifieds section from a newspaper with several part-time jobs circled. When he eventually confronts Liz about it, she admits that she only interviewed with jobs just to see if she still qualified as being useful. Eventually, Luther returns to Nathan to ask if the job is still available. Luther mentions Belsky, but Nathan does not remember who Belsky is, revealing that Elliott had lied about Belsky getting him the job in order to provoke Luther.
The narrative, told from Luther's perspective decades later, reveals that Liz eventually dies of cancer. A couple of nights before her death, Luther tells her she is the most important person he knows.
Then, back in the story's narrative time, Elliott reveals that he found Luther's father's gun, which Luther had been keeping in the house the entire time, but Luther doesn't elaborate. Later that day, Luther discovers that Elliott had been tampering with the pipes to cause the sewage gas leak all along. He confronts Elliott, the angriest he's ever been, and then returns downstairs to fix it. As they grow older, Elliott and his family visit Luther, now a widower, less and less, until they only see him once a year at Thanksgiving.
Reception.
The book received a generally positive reception, with reviews also criticizing the confusing and uncompelling narrator. The book was widely reviewed, garnering reviews from "The New York Times", "Publishers Weekly", "New Orleans Review", "The A.V. Club", "Kirkus Reviews", "The Independent", and "The Seattle Times", among others. The book won a 2006 American Book Award.
References.
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List of Luther characters
This is a list of fictional characters in the British psychological crime drama television series "Luther", its international remakes and .
Main characters.
John Luther.
Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, portrayed by Idris Elba, works for the Metropolitan Police Service, in the Serious Crime Unit. He is a legendary figure on the force both for his dedication and his ingenious approaches to solving cases. However, the horrors of Luther's job have given rise to emotional demons which often put him at odds with colleagues and loved ones. Because of this, he constantly breaches protocol and uses unorthodox (and sometimes illegal) methods, such as breaking into properties without warrants to find clues or violently threatening suspects or witnesses. He is also given to belligerent fits of anger. Nevertheless, he is known to hate firearms, and he refuses to kill or directly cause the death of suspects.
Luther studied English at University, where he met future spouse Zoe.
Luther returns from leave to investigate the double murder of Alice Morgan's parents, and quickly realises that she committed the crime. However, Morgan's methodical destruction of evidence keeps Luther from conclusively proving her guilt. A peculiar relationship develops between Luther and Morgan, and Luther approaches her for help on occasion. Morgan insinuates herself into Luther's relationship with Zoe with the intention of helping their marriage, yet her means only further complicate Luther's personal problems.
When Zoe is shot and killed by Luther's best friend, the corrupt Detective Chief Inspector Ian Reed, Luther – known for his violent temper – is blamed for the murder because Reed sets up the crime scene to implicate him. Luther subsequently becomes the focus of a citywide manhunt. Events transpire during which Alice kills Reed during a confrontation between him, on one side, and her, Luther, and Zoe's boyfriend Mark on the other, at a deserted Waterloo station. After providing proof that Reed murdered Zoe, Luther is allowed to return to the service, where he has now been assigned to the reorganised Serious and Serial Crime Unit, headed by DSU Schenck.
At the start of the second series, Luther has moved into an unmaintained flat at the Aylesbury Estate and shows suicidal tendencies. Luther also desires to leave the Met. He is approached by Caroline Jones, the wife of one of his former suspects, who asks him to locate her delinquent daughter, Jenny. When Luther tracks down Jenny and rescues her from a pornography shoot, the production's backers, Toby Kent and his grandmother, "Baba", violently pressure the inspector to hand her back. Rather than doing so, Luther strikes an illegal deal to provide them with information, in exchange for setting Jenny free. When Jenny kills Toby in self-defence, Luther manages to cover up her crime and threatens Baba with a visit from Alice if she continues to harass Jenny and her mother.
Idris Elba said of his character, "You know when you watch the news and someone has killed their children? And your instinct is to be like, 'Oh, if I got my hands on them'? Well, his instinct is to do that but he's a police officer. And when he does get his hands on them, he doesn't necessarily follow procedure. He will be as vindictive as the criminal".
Alice Morgan.
Alice Morgan, played by Ruth Wilson, is a research scientist with a genius-level IQ. When first introduced, Alice has murdered her parents – and their dog – in such a calculated fashion, that not even Luther is able to prove her guilt, of which he is absolutely certain. Alice's core belief, that nothing in life ultimately matters, comes into direct conflict with Luther's own beliefs. She frequently insinuates herself into Luther's professional and personal life, both as an enemy and ally, with behaviours ranging from stalking him and those close to him, to helping him avoid criminal prosecution. She also provides Luther with a unique insight into the criminal mind. Luther describes Alice as a malignant narcissist.
At the beginning of Series 2, Alice is in a mental institute following the events of Series 1 (she had confessed to killing Ian Reed). Luther goes to visit her, whereupon it is revealed she tried to kill herself by cutting her wrist. While visiting, Luther offers Alice an apple. She declines it, but after he leaves, he throws his half-eaten apple over the wall of the mental institute's gardens in which Alice is walking. When she picks the apple up, it is revealed that Luther has stolen a swipe card and given it to Alice to help her escape.
After escaping, she visits him one last time, asking Luther to come away with her to travel overseas. However, he refuses, as he cannot shake his dedication to being a police officer, and – he says: "I am who I am, and you are who you are". Alice then leaves him behind. She returns in the Series 3 season finale, when Luther is wrongly accused of arranging for DS Ripley's murder by a killer vigilante. After freeing him from police custody, Alice aids Luther in proving his innocence, and in the vigilante's capture. Having made her interest in developing a relationship with Luther clear, after again evading arrest, she meets up with Luther, and the episode ends as they debate what to do next.
Alice's apparent death in Belgium is announced in the first few minutes of Series 4. It is revealed that she and Luther have secretly been in regular communication by burner phone, and had been planning to flee to São Paulo. Her apparent death, and Luther's investigation of it, is a key component of the two-episode series.
Morgan is eventually revealed to be alive in Series 5, having faked her death when she realized Luther was never truly going to run away with her. Luther attempts to protect her and himself from Alice's robbery of crime boss George Cornelius, but eventually their relationship reaches its inevitable destruction when Morgan murders DS Catherine Halliday. Ultimately culminating in a struggle with Luther and Morgan falling to her apparent death and Luther's arrest for the deaths of Morgan, Halliday, and Benny Silver.
Justin Ripley.
Detective Sergeant Justin Ripley, played by Warren Brown, is a young policeman eager to be partnered with a detective like Luther, but he doesn't quite realise what doing so will entail.
After Luther is framed for Zoe's murder and flees, Ripley is the only one who believes that he is innocent and aids Luther in destroying the main piece of evidence against him. Ripley is arrested at the end of Series 1, after saving a fugitive Luther's life from a police marksman. For this action, he is put back in uniform and told he will remain in uniform for two years (though he keeps his rank of sergeant). At the beginning of Series 2, Luther has Ripley reinstated as a detective and puts him back on his team. DS Gray remarks that DS Ripley was a rising star but has now tarnished his career. At the end of Series 2 episode 1, Ripley is kidnapped by Cameron Pell, who tortures him throughout the next episode before Ripley manages to escape and aid in Pell's arrest.
In Series 3, Ripley is questioned by DSU George Stark and DCI Erin Gray, who are attempting to bring down Luther. At first, Ripley seems to be helping them, but he later tells them he has been honoured to work with Luther. In episode 3, Ripley chases the vigilante killer Tom Marwood into an alleyway and corners him. Despite Marwood's insistence, Ripley refuses to back down, so Marwood fatally shoots him.
Martin Schenk.
Detective Superintendent Martin Schenk, played by Dermot Crowley, initially works for Police Complaints and is universally feared for his steel-trap mind. A highly intuitive and observant individual, who appears unassuming, Schenk is determined to rid the force of corrupt officers which, despite Schenk's high regard for Luther's abilities, may include Luther himself.
In "The Calling", he investigated Luther for the first time after Luther set Julian Crouch's Jaguar on fire. He tells Zoe that he is married, and that he used to be a murder detective until he was stabbed.
Schenk appeared in episodes 3 to 6 in Series 1 and returned in Series 2 to head up the new Serious and Serial Crime Unit, replacing Rose Teller as DCI Luther's boss.
Benny 'Deadhead' Silver.
DS Benny "Deadhead" Silver, played by Michael Smiley, was first introduced in Series 1, when Luther needed some technological expertise. In Series 2, he has become a full-time employee of the new Serious and Serial Crime Unit. He gets his nickname Benny Deadhead from his laid back nature. In his first appearance, as well as the final two episodes of Series 2, he is shown to have an interest in role-playing games as well as "World of Warcraft". This knowledge comes in handy in Series 2, when the SSU is trying to catch twin killers for whom murder is part of a game.
Erin Gray.
DCI Erin Gray, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, is a new member of the team in Series 2 as DS Grey. She is highly intelligent, capable and ambitious, She makes it clear in episode 1 she doesn't want her name tarnished like Ripley's, and she keeps her distance from Luther. Luther keeps her on because she is good at her job and eager to please. During a fire evacuation (a false alarm by Luther) she witnesses him leaving Shenk's office, she attempts to find evidence of wrong doing by having Shenks account audited, but Ripley eliminates the evidence to protect Luther.
Without evidence, she is accused of attempting to smear Luther and is humiliated when she confronts him. She leaves the Serious and Serial Unit under a cloud. Between Series 2 and 3 she joins anti corruption and is inexplicably promoted to Detective Chief Inspector; apparently missing the rank of Inspector completely. Working with Detective Superintendent George Stark in an investigation against Luther, Grey convinces Ripley to wear a wire to prove Luther is clean. She starts a fake relationship with Ripley to throw Luther off the scent. Grey is last seen being taken to hospital following an attack from the vigilante killer Tom Marwood.
Ian Reed.
Detective Chief Inspector Ian Reed, played by Steven Mackintosh, is Luther's peer and closest friend. Prior to the events of Series 1, he had been married four times.
Reed lives his life by his own strict code, which he ultimately compromises by taking bribes. That deviation ends up haunting him when an operation he is part of blows up in his face, and he must cover his tracks by killing off everyone who knows the truth, including Luther. At the end of series 1, he threatens Luther's life and is shot and killed by Alice Morgan.
Zoe Luther.
Zoe Gillian Luther (née Cornell), played by Indira Varma, is John Luther's estranged wife and a human rights lawyer. During their separation, she has fallen in love with her colleague, Mark North, and finally feels happy with her life. Luther, distraught that she has met someone else, gives into violent rages. Through various events, including a one-time post-breakup sexual encounter with Luther, Zoe is sorely tempted to return to her marriage, but she realises things would only go back to the way they were and she ultimately leaves him.
Zoe is killed by Ian Reed in the penultimate episode of Series 1. While being held at gunpoint, she tries to defend herself with a kitchen knife, simultaneously talking to Luther on the telephone, who hears the murder take place.
Rose Teller.
Detective Superintendent Rose Teller, played by Saskia Reeves, is Luther's boss in the Serious Crimes Unit during Series 1. Having stuck her neck out to get Luther reinstated following his mental breakdown, she realises it may be hard to play modern-day police politics whilst supporting Luther's unique style of policing. DSU Teller does not return in Series 2, and Luther's new commander, Martin Schenk notes obliquely that good cops sometimes suffer for the misdeeds of the bad ones, suggesting that Teller may have taken the fall for DCI Reed's corruption.
Mark North.
Mark North, played by Paul McGann, is a human rights lawyer and, Zoe says: "the polar opposite of Luther". Mark fell in love with Zoe and believed she would be much happier with him than with her husband, which causes considerable friction with Luther.
Alice Morgan frequently harasses Mark and, on one occasion, has him beaten up by a group of female gang members in an attempt to get Zoe and Luther back together, before Luther insists that she stop. This only fuels Mark's dislike for Luther, and Mark becomes increasingly desperate to extract Zoe from the situation. However, after Zoe's death and learning her killer's true identity, Mark plays a part in Ian Reed's death. By the beginning of Series 2, Luther and Mark have become friendly, and Luther trusts Mark to the extent that he uses his house as a safehouse for Jenny Jones.
Emma Lane.
Detective Sergeant Emma Lane, played by Rose Leslie the newest recruit to the Serious and Serial Unit, Emma finds herself working side by side with the legendary John Luther, after the death of her former boss DCI Theo Bloom.
Growing up, Emma has always been the posh one – perhaps not a natural fit among the crack troops the Serious and Serial Unit. But there's plenty of grit behind her privileged exterior and she is ready to fight tooth and nail for the line of duty.
References.
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The Young Man
1984 novel by Botho Strauß
The Young Man () is a 1984 novel by the German writer Botho Strauß. It has a frame story about a man who enters the world of theatre, but the book mainly consists of phantasmagorical tales and allegories concerning art, alienation and German identity. An English translation by Roslyn Theobald was published in 1995.
Plot.
Leon Pracht, a young man, abandons a budding career in the footsteps of his father—a historian of religion specialised on Montanus—after the positive reception of his debut as a theatre director. He is recruited for an adaptation of Jean Genet's "The Maids" in Cologne, starring the two diva actresses Petra "Pat" Kurzrok and Margarethe "Mag" Wirth. However, Pat and Mag turn out to be too much to handle. Leon asks for advice from the local star director Alfred Weigert, but still fails to actualise his vision for the play.
A woman enters a forest and finds a department store named The Tower of the Germans. After a phantasmagorical episode she finds herself naked in front of the proprietor of the Germans. The proprietor of the Germans is a large, floating head which is half man and half carp.
A man is doing a study on an alternative community whose members are known as the Syks. After observing their unusual habits he commits a social error which freaks out a local woman. He is banished from the colony and takes part in a dreamlike ritual involving scatological sexual activity. Afterwards his female colleague writes a scathing report about his unprofessional behaviour.
A king dies and is condemned as a criminal, which becomes a long-lasting national trauma. At a terrace behind the castle, a number of people are gathered: the paramedic Reppenfries, his sister-in-law Paula and wife Dagmar, the beautiful Almut, the "modern" Hanswerner, the mail clerk Yossica, and the narrator, Leon. Each person tells a personal story or discusses art and philosophy.
Later, Leon finds Yossica who has been transformed into a clump of earth with a face. She explains how she, an aspiring songwriter, had met two peculiar talent scouts, Schwarzsicht and Zuversicht. The first, dressed in ragged clothes, offered her a slowly developing talent which eventually would result in timeless quality. The second, dressed elegantly and dancing, offered her to become the leading star of a new trend. Yossica tried to trick the agents so she could have both, but the attempt failed badly and she became a lump of earth. She asks Leon to bring her with him and put her in soil so she can grow into her former self.
Leon works as a photographer and lives with Yossica. She convinces him to go and meet Alfred Weigert who is staying at a skyscraper hotel in their city. Weigert has had a massive success as Ossia, the main character is a series of comedy films which he also directed. As Ossia—the name he has become known under also in private—he brilliantly captures the German national character, playing a Prussian vagabond described in the press as a mix between Parsifal and Paracelsus. Leon had been involved in the making of the first Ossia film but after that left the industry. When Leon and Yossica meet Ossia in his room, he has aged poorly and become an overweight recluse. He has not appeared as an actor in his last two films, which have been disjointed, pseudo-profound and not nearly as successful as the previous ones. In desperation, Ossia asks Leon to collaborate on a new film project. Ossia hands him notes to read and starts to explain the project, intended as a vehicle for Pat in a great female comedic role, but the film lacks structure and Leon disapproves of it. Leon asks Ossia to come along for a walk to get some fresh air, but Ossia declines and remains inside the tower.
Reception.
"Publishers Weekly" reviewed the book in 1995 and described it as "a bulky series of fables, phantasmagoria and allegories". The critic wrote that some of the stories "include unsettling surreal touches", but that most of them "are heavier-than-air fantasies that tend to revolve around the usual postmodern problems of alienated intellectuals, cultural collisions and consumer dystopias". "Ultimately", the critic wrote, "this is less a novel of ideas, or even of characters, than a series of grandiloquent speeches and freakish dream sequences".
References.
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William Hooper Young
American murderer
William Hooper Young (March 13, 1871 – after 1938) was a convicted American murderer. In 1903, he was convicted of the "Pulitzer Murder" in New York City and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Early life.
Hooper Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. He was the son of John Willard Young, an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Hooper Young was a grandson of Brigham Young, the president of the LDS Church and founder of Salt Lake City.
As a young adult, Hooper Young became an elder in the LDS Church, and in 1891 and 1892 he was a Mormon missionary in the eastern United States. In 1893, Young left Salt Lake City and began moving from city to city and from job to job. During his travels, he lived in Seattle; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Chicago; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Hoboken, New Jersey. Young drifted away from the LDS Church and according to his relatives in Utah Territory, had become a morphine addict. There were also rumors that he had left Salt Lake City because he had killed someone.
Pulitzer murder.
Scene of the crime: the Young apartment.
On September 19, 1902, the body of Anna Pulitzer was found in the Morris Canal outside Jersey City, New Jersey. Her abdomen had been stabbed and there was bruising on her head. Pulitzer was married but had been arrested a number of times for solicitation of prostitution. A New York cabman was found who claimed that a few days previously he had taken Pulitzer and an unknown man to an apartment in New York City that was the home of Young's father, John Willard Young. In the apartment, police found empty beer bottles, a bottle with chloral hydrate crystals in it, a carving knife with blood on it, and blood on bedsheets, in a closet, under the kitchen sink, and on the floor and walls. The words "blood atonement" were scrawled in a notebook, and underneath were several references to verses in the Bible that discuss atonement for crime. It was determined that Pulitzer had died of a drug overdose from chloral poisoning and that the head bruising and abdomen stabbing occurred after her death.
Hooper Young linked to death.
It was discovered that John Willard Young had been in France when Pulitzer had disappeared, but that Young's son Hooper used the apartment when he was away. Hooper Young was arrested in Derby, Connecticut, where he was found drunk and dressed like a hobo. Initially, Young denied his identity, but eventually he admitted who he was. Young claimed that he, Pulitzer, and a third person named Charles Simpson Eiling had been in the apartment on the night of Pulitzer's death, and that when he had temporarily left the apartment to purchase whiskey, he returned to find Pulitzer dead. Young said that Eiling had murdered Pulitzer and that he had decided to help Eiling hide the body because he was afraid of disgracing his father when the matter became public. Young said he tried to cut Pulitzer's body up into small pieces, but that after he made a cut to the abdomen, he lost his nerve and was not able to do it. He did not admit to dumping Pulitzer's body in the canal, but he indicated that he was aware of what had happened to the body. A search was made for Charles Eiling, but no one of that name could be located.
Motive speculation.
When the New York newspapers discovered that the prime suspect in Pulitzer's murder was the grandson of Brigham Young, much speculation began about the motive for the murder. Because of references to blood atonement that had been found in the apartment, some speculated that Pulitzer was killed in accordance with the Mormon principle of "blood atonement", whereby a person atones for sinful behavior through the shedding of their own blood. Others suggested that Young and Pulitzer had had an illicit affair years earlier, when Young was a Mormon missionary in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, which was Pulitzer's hometown. The actual motive for the murder was never determined.
Murder trial and conviction.
Young's murder trial began in New York City on February 4, 1903. Young pleaded not guilty. His trial commenced, but on February 10, Young told the court that he was willing to plead guilty to second degree murder. The judge accepted the plea and sentenced him to hard labor in state prison for the duration of his natural life. The judge stated that he was not willing to impose the death penalty because medical experts had suggested that Young was probably medically—though not legally—insane. Because a full trial was not completed, Young's motive or the truth behind his claims about another man being involved were never fully examined in court. Young served his sentence at Sing Sing in Ossining, New York.
Parole and later life.
In early 1924, Young was paroled. He was living with his father in New York City when his father died in February 1924.
In 1928 Hooper Young was in Fair Oaks, California reportedly trying to locate one of his half-sisters.
A Social Security claim was made by a William Hooper Young in June 1937 on an account that listed his parents as John W Young and Elizabeth Canfield.
Register, State Prison at Folsom: #21856. He entered Folsom Prison on July 20, 1938 for Violation of Section 288a PC + Prior. Los Angeles County. Sentence 0-15 years. AKA: William Hooper Young. Description: white, 5' 8 3/4", slender build, florid complexion, brown eyes, grey hair-balding. Prior: New York State Prison, Sing Sing. He died at Folsom Prison on December 6, 1939. Age at death: 68
In popular culture.
In Brian Evenson's 2006 novel, "The Open Curtain", the protagonist is a disaffected Mormon teenager who obsessively researches Young's involvement in Pulitzer's murder.

Betty Lou Young
American writer and conservationist
Betty Lou Young (May 18, 1919 – July 1, 2010) was a United States writer and conservationist. Young was born in Minneapolis to Chester Haller, the owner of a lumber warehouse, and his wife Amy, who was a teacher. While Young was still a baby, her parents separated, and her mother relocated in Long Beach. Young received her undergraduate education at UCLA, and her masters at Smith College in 1942, at which point she met and married Thomas Young.
Young became deeply involved in her local community of Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles, writing several books about the Pacific Palisades area. In the 1960s she campaigned to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains against plans for commercial and residential development. Thomas died in 1994, and Young in 2010. They had one son, Thomas R. Young – who collaborated with Betty Lou on some of her books – and two daughters.
References.
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Louisa Young
English novelist, born late 20th century
Louisa Young is a British novelist, songwriter, short-story writer, biographer and journalist, whose work has appeared in 32 languages. By 2023 she had published seven novels under her own name and five with her daughter, the actor Isabel Adomakoh Young, under the pen name Zizou Corder. Her eleventh novel, "Devotion", appeared in June 2016. She has also written three non-fiction books, "The Book of the Heart" (Flamingo, 2000), "A Great Task of Happiness: The Life of Kathleen Scott" (Macmillan, 1995; Lulu, 2012) and her memoir, "You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol" (Borough Press, 2018), an account of her relationship with the composer Robert Lockhart and of his alcoholism. Her most recent novel, "Twelve Months and a Day", was published in June 2022 (Borough Press) in the UK, and in the US in January 2023 (Putnam). She is currently working on three new volumes of The Cazalet Chronicles, by Elizabeth Jane Howard (MacMillan,from 2026).
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Prizes.
Young's work has been nominated and shortlisted for prizes that include the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Costa Book of the Year, the Costa Novel of the Year, the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year Prize, which it won, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the International Dublin Literary Award, the Wellcome Book Prize and the Folio Prize. It has been chosen by the Richard and Judy Book Club.
Early life.
Louisa Young was born in London, England, to the politician and writer Wayland Young (Lord Kennet) and Elizabeth Young, Lady Kennet. She has five siblings, including the sculptor Emily Young. She was educated at Paddington's Hallfield Primary School, St Paul's Girls' School, Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where she read history.
Career.
Young worked as a sub-editor, then as a freelance columnist and feature writer on national publications, including "The Guardian", the "Sunday Times", the "Daily Express", "Marie Claire", "Tatler", "Bike" and "Motorcycle International". She also worked at various stages as a despatch rider, a busker (double bass