But, even under the most favourable circumstances, this stage seems to introduce psychic life (and become prototypical for) a sense of inner division and universal nostalgia for a paradise forfeited. It is against this powerful combination of a sense of having been deprived, of having been divided, and of having been abandoned that basic trust must maintain itself throughout life.

DEFINE: Erickson frames basic trust as a lifelong achievement maintained against deprivation, division, and abandonment — recasting trust not as a given but as a hard-won equilibrium.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 235