The man who craves renewal at mid-life cannot count on much help from society. For the most part he will have to work through this crisis period alone, and to do so he will have to struggle to overcome in himself many of the beliefs he shares with the culture in which he lives. This [...]

“Sometimes I fantasize about hopping on a jet to South America and starting a whole new life,” admitted one recently divorced man. “But the trouble is, I know I’ll be there waiting for me when I get off the plane.” This wry comment contains a profound truth about the mid-life lust for change: It is [...]

Like Peter, many men become more interested in meaningful relationships at mid-life, less preoccupied with success and achievement. Their values become more humanistic, more expressive. They develop a deeper rapport with their children, warmer friendships with both men and women. Some switch careers, change the focus of their work, or get involved with philanthropic or [...]

Today an increasing number of researchers are following Erikson’s leads in their investigations of adult development. But the most provocative ideas, as we mentioned earlier, come from Daniel J. Levinson and his team of researchers at Yale University. Moreover, they are the only group to have studied the male mid-life period in depth, and to [...]

Friedman and Rosenman’s findings have aroused bitter controversy and antagonism within the medical establishment. Until recently their work was ridiculed or ignored, their federal funding often in jeopardy. Now, after twenty years of accumulating hard evidence, they have finally attained some measure of respectability. But their theories are still phobic-ally resisted by the majority of [...]