heir idealism, and for their tendency to see things in black-and-white. These people will gather other around them and promote their beliefs and life styles with regard to others’ rights to disagree. The lack of identity is perhaps more difficult still, and Erikson refers to the malignant tendency here as repudiation. They repudiate their member in the world of adults and, even more, they repudiate their need for an identity. Some adolescents allow themselves to “fuse” with a group, especially the kind of group that is particularly eager to provide the details of your identity: religious cults, militaristic organizations, groups founded on hatred, groups that have divorced themselves from the painful demands of mainstream society. They become involved in destructive activities, drugs, or alcohol, or you may withdraw into their own psychotic fantasies. After all, being “bad” or “nobody” is better than not knowing who you are. If one successfully negotiates this stage, one will have virtue Erikson called fidelity. Fidelity means loyalty, the ability to live by society standards despite their imperfections and incompleteness and inconsistencies. “For adolescents not only help one another temporarily through much discomfort by forming cliques and by stereotyping themselves, their ideals, and their enemies; they also perversely test each other’s capacity to pledge fidelity” Stage six is young adulthood, which last from about 18 to about 30. The ages in the adult stages are much fuzzier than in the childhood stages, and people may differ dramatically. The task is to achieve some degree of intimacy, as opposes to remaining in isolation. Intimacy is the ability to be close to others, as a lover, a friend, and as a participant in society. Because one has a clear sense of which one is , one no longer need to fear “losing” oneself, as many adolescents do. The...
