In Midlife A Jungian Perpective

Drawing on analytic experience, dreams, and mythology, Murray Stein, Jungian analyst and author, formulates three main features of the midlife passage. It begins with an erosion of attachment to the world, as if an inner treasure had been thieved away. This is followed by hints of a fresh spirit, renegade, mischievous, that scoffs at established routines. This new spirit - whom we must call Hermes - disrupts life and alarms family and friends. Finally, with luck, a deep transformation occurs, as the personality adjusts to the influx of Hermes and receives his gifts. An important book - the first to address this critical transition in terms of the psychology of C. G. Jung and the anthropology of Victor Turner.