Erikson was right.
Young adulthood (20's to 40 years)
* Psychosocial Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation
* Main Question: "Am I loved and wanted?"
* Ego quality: Love
* Related Elements in Society: patterns of cooperation (often marriage)
Body and ego must be masters of organ modes and of the other nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon. The avoidance of these experiences leads to openness and self-absorption.
Intimacy vs. Isolation, is emphasized around the ages of 19 to 34. At the start of this stage, identity vs. role confusion is coming to an end and it still lingers at the foundation of the stage (Erikson 1950). Young adults are still eager to blend their identities with friends. They want to fit in. Erikson believes we are sometimes isolated due to intimacy. We are afraid of rejection; being turned down, our partners breaking up with us. We are familiar with pain and to some of us rejection is painful, our egos cannot bear the pain. Erikson also argues that "Intimacy has a counterpart: Distantiation: the readiness to isolate and if necessary, to destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to our own, and whose territory seems to encroach on the extent of one's intimate relations" (1950)