equires industry, thus resolving the conflict of this stage. For Dave, play time was not an option. He had problems in school, both academically and socially. During this time, according to our text, Comparison with peers becomes exceptionally important (Zastrow, 1997, p. 277). For Dave, this comparison was about as bleak as one could imagine. He had to steal food to survive, and these food thefts were known to his peers. His clothing, lack of good hygiene and stuttering also set him apart. Any one of these failures can prevent a resolution of the crisis of this stage. Dave was a failure at all of these things, resulting in a very strong sense of inferiority. Even one of the games his mother concocted was designed to cause him to fail: She would force him to search the house for things that didnt exist, then torture him when he couldnt locate the object in question. The concept of this stage is a perfect fit with the realities of Daves life.The crisis of the fifth stage is Identity versus Role Confusion. During adolescence, the period of life this stage addresses, Dave was moving through the foster care system. Role confusion occurs when a person cannot integrate the various roles they play into a perception of self. Based on what we learned about adolescence in our Human Behavior class, this stage is difficult in the best of situations. For Dave, it must have been impossible. Traditional roles found in a typical adolescents life (sibling, child, friend, etc.) are skewed or absent altogether in Daves life. He was not a son or even a boy to his mother: he was an It. At their mothers insistence, his brothers did not treat him as a sibling. Dave had, essentially, no place or role in the family at all except as a target for his mothers warped games and tortures.Intimacy versus Isolation is the sixth stage of Eriksons theory and is the conflict of young adulthood. An intimate relationship requires the ability to share ideas and feelings with...
