Błażej Smykowski
Psychologia Rozwojowa, Tom 21, Numer 3, 2016, s. 47 - 66
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843879PR.16.016.5527Directing the stream of consciousness. on Professor Lech Witkowski’s endeavours to appropriately interpret Erik H. Erikson’s ideas in Poland
The way a given theoretical concept is interpreted depends on several temporal perspectives. First of all, not only is it the age of the interpreter and the historical time when the interpretation takes place, but also the chronology of successive versions of the author’s ideas or their interpretations by others. Without taking those into account, the misinterpretation which could have been avoided may be mistaken with another which is impossible to avoid. Thus, a correct interpretation might be considered wrong. Allowing for time variables must result in the conclusion that a close-to-correct interpretation of a theoretical concept is available only to a mature person who has both the physical and psychological access to the content of the theory, and who has become independent from the historical actuality to a large extent.
The root of this reflection is in the book Versus. About the structural duality of development phases in the ecology of life cycle in Erik H. Erikson’s psychodynamic model published by Lech Witkowski in 2015. The concept presented in the work seems a perfect example of such a dependency. Only at the last phase of his lifecycle did the author himself fully understand and synthetically describe the logic of the stage development of the ego and self identity, as well as the central content and dynamics of inner- and interstage processes.