Midlife crisis? No, just part of living

WE ALL know the scenario: a man in middle age suddenly divorces his loyal, longsuffering wife, starts dating a woman half his age, buys a Porsche or motorbike and gets a hair transplant. Diagnosis? Midlife crisis. This week, economists claimed to have definitive proof it is a real, bona fide phenomenon. They undertook an analysis of data, and found a dip in happiness in middle age. But I’m not convinced this is really evidence of a midlife crisis and not the result of other factors, such as changes to working patterns, relationships or health at this age. While it is has caught on in the public imagination, psychologists actually question the existence of the midlife crisis, and I share this scepticism. The research supporting it is very weak. The term ‘midlife crisis’ was coined in 1965 by Elliot Jaques, a Canadian psychoanalyst, to describe challenges during the normal period of transition and self-reflection that many adults experience from ages 40 to 60. There’s no doubt middle-aged people question their lives. As their children become more independent, and with years of marriage behind them, they might look at their career and realise it’s stagnating. Or maybe they have drifted away from their partner. Or they realise time is running out to do the things they really wanted to. They look around and ask what it’s all for, and revaluate the choices they have made that resulted in where they find themselves. But the idea that this only happens to people in middle age is, I think, a myth. People of all ages find themselves, at different points in their life and for different reasons, asking big, philosophical questions about what the point of it all is and what they want to do with their lives. Working with adolescents, I often met youngsters asking these exact questions faced with which A-levels to do and whether to go to university. Many were overwhelmed and felt at a crisis point. It’s perfectly normal. Similarly, when I worked in geriatrics, older people would often be very contemplative, questioning their lives, appraising the choices they made and figuring out what to do with their remaining time. The truth is we go through our lives having periods of introspection and reflection, evaluating what we’ve done and what we want to do. It’s a normal, everyday part of life, and it’s no more likely to happen in midlife than at another time.