Broken dreams: An intimate history of the midlife crisis Mark Jackson Reaktion Books, 2021. 272pp. £20.00 (cloth). ISBN 9781789143959.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
History Of

An Introduction to the Millennial Suburban Ensemble Film

2019 ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
Wyatt Moss-Wellington
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Narrative Theory ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
Film Genre ◽  
American Cinema ◽  
Family Trauma ◽  
Media Depiction ◽  
History Of

Part III uses the hermeneutics and narrative theory established in the first half of the book to investigate a film genre that emerged at the end of the millennium: the suburban ensemble dramedy. The first chapter makes the case that suburban ensemble cinema comparatively amalgamates a number of conventions from a range of antecedent genres: infidelity dramas, family trauma dramas, the midlife crisis film and the coming-of-age film, along with works from other media, including socially conscious domestic TV sitcoms. It compares the history of suburban media depiction in American cinema with the lived realities of residentially dispersed contexts as they developed over the second half of the 20th century.

scholarly journals THE FEMINIST ORIGINS OF THE MIDLIFE CRISIS

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 503-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNE SCHMIDT
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Double Standard ◽  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
First Time

AbstractThis article tells the history of the midlife crisis, for the first time. Today, the idea of midlife crisis conjures up images of male indulgence and irresponsibility, but it was first successfully promoted as a feminist concept that applied to men and women equally and described the dissolution of gender roles at the onset of middle age. Although the term was coined by the psychologist Elliott Jaques in the 1950s, it only came into general use two decades later with journalist Gail Sheehy's bestselling Passages (1976), as a concept that relied on older understandings of middle age as a welcome ‘release’ from motherhood and domesticity. The feminist origins of the midlife crisis suggest, first, that journalistic publishing can be more significant for the history of an idea than specialists’ theories, even if those precede it. Secondly and more importantly, it sheds new light on Susan Sontag's classic analysis of the ‘double standard of aging’ by making visible how women used the notion of midlife change to undermine gender hierarchies.

“Generativity versus Stagnation”: Midlife Crisis in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-446
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
True Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Individuation Process ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
History Of ◽  
Psychoanalytic Approach ◽  
Caring Power

This paper discusses midlife crisis as a driving force behind the thought and action of the protagonist of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. The whole novel contains a diary written by the English butler Stevens who relates his history of servitude at Darlington Hall and concludes with some revelations about the true nature of his past. Since the butler’s account gives hints to his concern for the extent of his achievement in life, his reassessing act of delving into the past can be taken as an attempt to resolve midlife crisis. Being the seventh stage of Erik Erikson’s developmental psychology, midlife crisis is primarily characterized by the binary “generativity versus stagnation” and the subject’s struggle to decide on the meaning of life. Occurring between 40 and 65, midlife crisis is stimulated by the reconsideration of social demands such as career and marriage. Applying this psychoanalytic approach to Stevens’ experience of midlife crisis, the present research investigates the place of Lord Darlington and Miss Kenton, the former Stevens’ employer and the latter his only love object, as embodiments of the social demands of career and marriage that the butler reviews in his midlife stage. Ultimately, this research discusses the butler’s success in resolving midlife crisis by considering the individuation process, namely self-awareness, self-actualization, and the caring power the protagonist goes through. Keywords: Ishiguro, Erikson, Midlife Crisis, Generativity, Stagnation, Individuation.

Successful Career Women at Midlife: Crises and Transitions

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amia Lieblich
Keyword(s):  
Adult Development ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Career Women ◽  
Midlife Crisis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Integrated Or ◽  
Similar Theory ◽  
Universal Stage ◽  
Acute Crisis

Recent theories and studies have gradually clarified some of the psychological processes of middle age. Most interesting are the contributions that maintain different developmental processes for women and men. Three of the major theories in the area [1–3] seem to converge in proposing a process of gradual cross-sex transition in adulthood, the result of which may be a more integrated or androgynous personality structure in the second half of life. A different model of adult development, centered on midlife crisis, was proposed by Levinson et al. as a universal stage in men's life cycle [4]. Similar theory and research about women are not as conclusive. The present study investigated in depth the life history of twenty-five American career women at midlife. Such women sociologically combine feminine and masculine roles and may be considered as a test case for the theories. The transitions experienced by these women during their lifetimes were categorized into “masculine” or “feminine” types. It was found that they were distributed about equally between the two types of transitions, thus excluding a simple biological approach. Acute midlife crisis was reported by only about a third of the sample. It is proposed that the double role protects these women from acute crisis.

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