In Midlife: A Jungian Perspective

by Murray B. Stein

crisis, anger, dissolution, adventure, change ... Drawing on analytic experience, dreams, and myths, Murray Stein formulates the main features of the middle passage. First an erosion of attachments. Then hints of a fresh spirit--renegade and mischievous--hat scoffs at routines. This new spirit disrupts life and alarms family and friends. Finally, with luck, transformation occurs; life begins again. Murray Stein, past president of the International Association of Jungian Analysts, has written a best-selling, good-humored book, brimming with shrewd counsel and cultural relevance.

Genres: Psychology, Health

149 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1983

About the author

Not to be confused with other Analytical/Jungian Psychologist Murray Stein

Jungian psychoanalyst, author, lecturer

Murray Stein, Ph.D.is a training analyst at the International School for Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland. His most recent publications include The Principle of Individuation, Jung’s Map of the Soul, and The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis (Editor of the Jungian sections, with Ross Skelton as General Editor). He lectures internationally on topics related to Analytical Psychology and its applications in the contemporary world.

Dr. Stein is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. and M.Div.), the University of Chicago (Ph.D., in Religion and Psychological Studies), and the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich. He is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He has been the president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (2001-4), and is presently a member of the Swiss Society for Analytical Psychology and President of the International School of Analytical Psychology, Zurich.

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most important book I read while in my 40s. Not strictly Jungian in that, most notably, Stein's ventures the idea that as we mature, if we have done our work, our "brains" mature to a higher level of cognition. Suddenly confronted with a mind newly capable of holistic thought, processing data in new and unfamiliar ways, we lose it. Thus, the mid-life crisis, which isn't a crisis at all unless we see it that way.

[Algirdas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apie vidurio ir kitokio amžiaus krizes, slenkstines būsenas ir kaip jose nepasiklysti. Geriausia išeitis - kreiptis į tos būsenos šeimininką ir vedlį Hermį. Sėkmės.

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book it total crap. I was really hoping the author will redeem himself by end of the book. But no.
He should have called it 'Review of Homer's Iliad', because basically that's exactly what it is. 153 pages of total nonsense. Well, 99% of nonsense, because that other 1% has kinda useful information, which is basically description of the feelings and emotions a person in mid life crisis has. That's it. Nothing more. But I know exactly what emotions and feelings I have since I'm going through it.
Book was no help at all.
It is waste of time. Seriously.

[Lorena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently too young for this book.

[Elliedakota · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dense academic reading. It was originally published in 1983 under the title "The World of Hermes and the Experience of Liminality: Reflections on the Midlife Transition" and that title is far more descriptive of the actual content. It was "rebranded" to increase sales but it reads like an (old) graduate thesis.

[Hunted Snark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did manage to sustain a Jungian mood for an entire book!
This was surprisingly readable and a great way of getting into depth psychology sort of ... sideways.

Stein's style is direct and easy, as he leads you into a virtual labyrinth of jargon where I occasionally paused and thought 'I understood that perfectly. If I'd opened the book randomly on that sentence, I'd have slammed it shut and never opened it again.'

Because it is all very elaborate and fanciful, approaching psychology via metaphor and archetype, rather than just calling a spade a spade.

I mean, you can just say 'whoa, midlife: you've just noticed that you're not on the climb any more, your body's starting to show signs of dissolution, and most of your potential is probably paid out at this stage. Bummer. Maybe you need to rethink your priorities/values/interests/marriage/career/favourite colour.'

instead of ... 'whoa, you're uneasy in yourself. You've just entered liminality — the realm of the trickster archetype as personified by Hermes. Well, let's get that corpse of your youthful persona found and buried, and then we can talk myth ...'

But on the other hand, if you happen to enjoy myth, classics, metaphors and ... crucially ... overthinking (and why the hell else would you be reading a Jungian approach to anything?) — it's much more fun to float about with Hermes for a while.

More than that, it gave me pause to think whether calling a spade a spade (or, for that matter, designating a trowel a spade based on its having a statistically significant number of spade-like characteristics) is necessarily the best approach to every aspect of the human psyche.
Maybe a crabwise approach is sometimes better. We are a story-telling species, after all, but maybe the statistical stories are a little dry for some situations.

Probably, we need both.


.... Anyhow I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed the journey through this book.
I must have picked it up at just the right time.
And we all know what the author, if not the Trickster, would say about that.

[Sergei Parfentiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Автор раскрывает юнгианскую модель кризиса среднего возраста и происходящие в психике глубинные изменения. Как и подобает юнгианцу, без механистичных рецептов, с множеством обращений к древнегреческой мифологии и драматургии. Живописно, поэтично и вдохновляюще о времени переоценки ценностей и ориентиров, которое нередко бывает временем душевного слома и потерянности. Стайн несет благую весть: это естественный, и даже неизбежный период, который, однако, нужно проходить мудро и внимательно, чтобы не застрять надолго или навсегда. Для этого даются подсказки и метафоры, которые могут выручить в нужный момент, равно как и общее понимание принципов происходящего.

[Zeljko]

I think the title is misleading, it shouldn't have this "A Jungian Perspective". It has some points connected to Jung, but too little to be a part of book title. Will I ever find a book about Jung's topics written in straightforward-"normal" language?

[ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel seen.

[Amy Herring · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started out really liking this book. It addressed exactly what I was feeling so I felt understood, but also the psychological perspective and terms that I love learning about. The author also brings in a beefy metaphor from mythology - Hermes - another topic I love, so there was a lot of promise in this book. However, it grew tedious and unhelpful as I continued to read. His metaphor was taken so far that it overtook the book and ceased providing insight as much as it became storytelling/mythtelling.

[Yitzchok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviews later. Great book!

[Daniel Seifert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reflectively read this text with personal interior work and it served as an accompaniment to personal analytic experience assisting in making my way through the liminal stage of middle life. Stein, a Jungian analyst in the spirit of Hermes guides the understanding promoting the reflective psyche toward recognition of the main features of midlife passage: the erosion of attachment to the world, the emergence of an archetypal spirit that can disrupt and scoff at the established (conventional) routines [for me the gentle cynic]; and finally with some luck, a profound transformation as one shifts and changes via the incursion of the 'Hermes factor' through the lower regions ('Hades') and on the road of life (generativity--the shared [koinos] Hermes).