An Eriksonian psychobiography of Martin Luther King Junior

The aim of the current study was to conduct a psychobiography of the life of Martin Luther King Junior, who was born in 1929 and died in 1968. He was an American clergyman, husband, father, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. King fought for civil rights for all people. His “I Have a Dream” speech raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established him as one of the greatest orators in the United States of America. His main legacy was to secure access to civil rights for all Americans, thereby empowering people of all racial and religious backgrounds, and promoting equality in the American nation. This is a psychobiographical research study which aimed to explore and describe the life of Martin Luther King junior’s psychological development according to Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental Theory. King was selected through purposive sampling on the basis of interest, value, and uniqueness to the researcher. Alexander’s model of identifying salient themes was used to analyse the data which were then compared to Erikson’s theory through a process of analytical generalisation. Limitations of the current study were identified and certain recommendations for future research in this field are offered