Psychologist Erik Erikson recognized the importance of the external world and the events, challenges, important people, traumas, and successes that went into the development of the building blocks of life.

Erikson understood the importance of early development in stabilizing and setting in motion life-long patterns of reaction and behavior. Early development used to be thought of as stages, not as an ongoing process, and that tasks were to be completed or deficits would result. But many now think that some things are necessary throughout the life cycle: reinforcement, mirroring, attunement, being on your wavelength, being seen, being heard. We thought it would be of value to look at Erikson’s eight stages of development in our world today, at any age, in the environments in which we find ourselves, and to see what that might mean. Development never stops and change is always possible.

Erikson’s first stage is the oral stage, from birth to 18 months, during which the conflict is trust versus mistrust. During this stage, the infant develops trust because of loving, responsive caregivers. The feeding ritual is important for development of trust, safety, and comfort: it shows that all’s right with the world.

Now, suppose all 99% of us are the infants, and we’re looking to trustworthy authority figures for this. Unfortunately, instead of inspiring trust, safety, and nurturance, we get disruptive behavior, mendacity, vapid speeches, idiotic debates, mean-spiritedness, demonizing of the less fortunate…and the repetitive lesson that whoever has and holds on to the most toys gets power, and that is good. This leads to adversarial relationships: us versus them. If you are elected, you will be protected, not give protection (e.g., insider trading) or receive special treatment that would not extend to those in your care (e.g., top-of-the-line healthcare for elected officials).

If the infant internalizes that he cannot trust and is not safe, he develops a basic sense of mistrust. That would seem to be an accurate description of the state of things today with our political process. Respect for Congress, for example, is at an all-time low. This is a very sad state of affairs. It creates a bad prognosis for the infant, unless the situation changes, and it’s not much better for us.

We need to require our leadership to meet a criterion for good citizenship, good role modeling, so as to earn our trust. It might require public financing for election campaigns to create a level playing field with debates of substance, not games of “gotcha!”

What happens in infancy leaves a profound impact. What happens when the bond between leaders and everyone else is tarnished and broken—and when respect for institutions is sullied—is unacceptable. We need to do what the infant cannot: to hold those in authority to a higher, appropriate standard.

Oliver & Barbara