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Finding Meaning In The Second Half of Life
From LookSmart.com
The Second Half of Life
The initial groundwork regarding the notion of a second half of life was first laid by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Jung (1977) proposed that the first half of life, roughly until one's forties, involved the development of the personality and the adapting to life in the outer world. This stage of life typically concerns itself with education, relationships, work, family, and children. The tasks of the first half of life are external, having largely to do with establishing a family and a career. During what Jung labeled the second half of life, one turns inward to focus on the life of the spirit. Jung believed the tasks of the second half of life are essentially internal, having largely to do with finding meaning in one's life and in one's death. The Swiss thinker also lamented that society prepares its youth for the first half of life in terms of a proper education but provides little for the middle-aged to prepare them for the second half of life.
It must be noted here that Jung, and often even scholars today who examine issues and ideas first raised by Jung, frequently addressed the mid life/transformation stage from a male perspective. But as Wilder (2005) observed, women too experience profound changes at mid-life and have similar needs to transform attitudes about work as men do. Wilder also called for more research in this area, since she believed, "no road map" existed "for mid-life and beyond [for] women to follow for this next exciting and vital phrase of our lives" (p. 3).
Levine (2004) agreed with many aspects of Wilder's notions. Drawing on the latest research on hormonal change and based on a number of detailed interviews with women in the second half of life, Levine found mid-life women facing similar problems as men in the workplace. Both Wilder's and Levine's findings strongly suggest that what is true of one gender at mid-life in the work place is also true for the other. Consequently, while much of the research used in this work centered on men in the second half of life, much of what is noted here will most often relate to women as well.
Recent scholarship suggests the features of the second half of life are grounded in physical changes (Valiant, 2002). Powell (2003) asserted "the changes that happen to your body in midlife may have indicated that you crossed over into the second half. Anybody who says he can still do at fifty what he was doing at twenty wasn't doing much at twenty. Aging brings limitations in what you can still do" (p. 4). Diamond ( 199 believed that similarly to a woman's transition, a man's transition into the mid-life drama is driven by profound physical transformation. For the male, these changes are wrought by a drop in male hormone production. With this drop comes a loss of drives and ambitions, a scary thing in our competitive/success driven work world. The passions that first half of life men and women wielded like battering rams to defeat adversaries and be successful in the work arena suddenly wane, often leaving the mid-life person in crisis mode.
But just as distressing as the deep physical changes at this portion of life are the psychological changes. This aspect is one that can have profound impact on administrators in higher education. In this process of change, one's basic sense of centeredness in his or her vocation may be lost. Hollis (2005) noted in this regard that "we frequently have enormous expectations that careers will provide satisfaction in our life, and, however well and unwell our jobs work for us, in the second half of life we often find ourselves working for them, with decreasing satisfaction even as we accomplish our goals, collect our paychecks, and invest in a 401 (k)" (p. 27). Along the same lines, Powell related, "Somewhere in the middle of life, typically in your forties or fifties, you face a crisis of limitations and identity. You climbed the ladder of success only to see that the ladder was against the wrong building. So you have all these toys and still you ask, 'Is that all there is?'" Powell added, "Midlife brings us face-to-face with massive change. It is a journey of transformation, a crisis of limitations, the realization that you cannot have it all. Midlife brings you to questions such as "Who am I? What is life about?"
Book Review
"Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up"
The book, for me {Mary Anne Fields, Life Coach, Trainer, & Speaker}, is one of those that is totally meaningful at this point in my life. I've underlined almost every sentence! It uses Carl Jung's concepts, but explains them for the lay person in easy to understand and apply terms. It's not just psychological, because Jung's work also delved into the spiritual and the metaphysical. And even though he uses the term soul, it is not in the religious sense. It's not a quick, easy read, because it is deep and profound.
The chapters include titles such as:
How Did We Get To This Point
Becoming Who We Think We Are
The Collision of Selves
Barriers to Transformation
The Dynamics of Intimate Relationship
The Family during the Second Half Of Life
Career versus Vocation
Recovering Mature Spirituality in a Material Age
The Healing of the Soul
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The midlife crisis is familiar enough, but as in previous works, Hollis (The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning at Midlife), brings a Jungian perspective to it that goes deeper than the idea of finding mere self-fulfillment. That feeling that you've been living the wrong life, that you're lost and confused, is "an insurgency of the soul," he says poetically, which "overthrows the conscious conduct of our lives." This mental suffering presents an opportunity to embark on a journey transcending expectations foisted on us by others, such as parents, and to find true self-knowledge. Hollis offers not a simple how-to on facing this crisis, but rather a deep Jungian exploration of individuation, the process of becoming the person one was meant to be. Sprinkling his discussion with references to prose, drama, poetry and popular culture as well as examples from patient histories, Hollis recommends working toward a mature spirituality by being true to personal experience and embracing the mystery of life. This spirituality is a reconnection to the voice of the soul, dramatized by images that appear to us in dreams. Hollis is humane and compassionate regarding the human condition, and his focus on the underlying meaning of life will resonate for many, though they may not respond to his somewhat mystical, god-laden language. (May 1)
Book Description
The second half of life presents a rich possibility for spiritual enlargement, for we are never going to have greater powers of choice, never have more lessons of history from which to learn, and never possess more emotional resilience, more insight into what works for us and what does not, or a deeper, sometimes more desperate, conviction of the importance of getting our life back.
What does it really mean to be a grown up in today’s world? We generally recognize only three developmental periods of life—childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We assume that once we “get it together” with the right job, marry the right person, have children, and buy a home, all is settled and well. But adulthood itself presents varying levels of growth, and is rarely the respite of stability we expected. Turbulent emotional shifts can take place anywhere between the age of thirty-five and seventy when we question the choices we’ve made, realize our limitations, and feel stuck—commonly known as the “midlife crisis.” In Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, Jungian analyst James Hollis explores the ways we can grow and evolve to fully become ourselves when the traditional roles of adulthood aren’t quite working for us.
Revealing a new way of uncovering and embracing our authentic selves, Hollis offers wisdom to anyone facing a career that no longer seems fulfilling, a long-term relationship that has shifted, or family transitions that raise issues of aging and mortality. Through case studies and provocative observations, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life provides a reassuring message and a crucial bridge across this critical passage of adult development.
Advance Praise for Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life
"The Search for Meaning in the Second Half of Life contains the writing of a gentle and insightful soul who does not bog down in analytical dryness, but speaks to and teaches from the heart. A combination of genuine vision and genuine humanity is a rare and valuable gift, and readers will find both in this work."
--Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves
“James Hollis is the most lucid thinker I know about the complexities and complexes that interfere with living a full life. His broad background in literature, philosophy, and Jungian psychology is everywhere present in this important book, which, as it strips away illusions, posits the soul-work that's necessary for the difficult task of making our lives meaningful. He's one of our great teachers and healers.”
--Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet
“James Hollis’s new book is a work of soul-making. It brings solace and wisdom to those of us who finds ourselves in a dark wood, in the second half of life.”
--Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry
"Midlife is a time when people can lose their way and flounder. Jungian analyst James Hollis knows this terrain, describes it well and asks the important questions that can lead to clarity, maturity, and meaning"
--Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of Goddesses in Everywoman and Gods in Everyman
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