Therapy for the Middle-Aged: The Relevance of Existential Issues

Middle age is a normative developmental stage. Although further research is still required, there is general agreement in the literature as to the principal changes, conflicts, and tasks that are characteristic of this stage in life, and in particular, as to the nature of the transition to the second half of life, or what is commonly known as “midlife crisis.” The dynamic psychotherapeutic approach to the middle-aged patient does not differ in essence from that adopted toward adolescents or the elderly. The current paper suggests that introducing existential issues and the existentialist therapy approach into analytic-oriented therapy is especially appropriate to the psychotherapy of individuals in midlife. The central themes of middle-age psychology are presented, and the relevance of the existentialist therapy approach is discussed in this context, with reference to four fundamental elements of the “existential discourse”: death, isolation, freedom, and meaning.