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Birth
David Menway is born in New York, N.Y. to a pair of recent immigrants who due to financial reasons leave him with an orphanage.
Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
The crisis is being able to find/have someone to depend on for survival and safety concerns. A baby especially needs to have someone to trust to provide for them. -
Drug Use
David (age 16) tries LSD with a group of new friends at a new high school in order to get "In", despite (and in conflict with) his conservative christian upbringing.
Identity vs. Confusion
The crisis has to do with the truer complexity of life than what you may have previously witnessed/learned and finding your "place" or "path" within the world. The crisis is between being lost in this complexity and finding your identity. The trouble is knowing when you've found it, if at all. -
Love Triangle
David (age 23) after having finished college is facing inner turmoil over having to choose between dumping his girlfriend from his hometown for a man he's met at college, or having to reject his sexuality and interest for the man he's met. Intimacy vs. Isolation The crisis is between finding true consummate love in correspondence to what you want in a person, or a failure to satisfactorily find another person at all. -
Death
David Menway (age 67) dies, hit in a car crash by a 20 year old while on his way home from baseball pratice with his grandchildren,
Integrity vs. Despair
The conflict is between feeling fulfilled with your life and having accomplished something useful or feeling as if this hasn't been accomplished and the anxiety of finding something to fill this space.
