Some Critical Points in the Human Life Cycle: Mid-Life

Abstract

There is a stage in human development distinctly identifiable, occurring between 40 and 60 years of age. Similar to adolescence, it appears to be a crisis-prone stage. About a third of the groups studied in the works of Levinson, Vaillant and Neugarten go through a stage where specific behaviours and feelings create distress, confusion and ill-will.