THE WONDERFUL CRISIS OF MIDDLE AGE: Some Personal Reflections

by Eda J. LeShan ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 1973

Crises rather. . .as NET counselor (How Do Your Children Grow) LeShan talks (and talks and talks) about those not-so-wonderful dilemmas: trans-generational pressures from both elderly parents and teen-age children; culture shock from movements like Women's Lib and radicalized young; marital adjustments in the empty house; and the financial, political and social tensions of today's living. Via Maslow among others, LeShan's basic emphasis is on actualization as she urges constant self-examination and realistic confrontation for each emergency. She urges a search for gold among the shale flung off by accelerated change. Reading Germaine Greet sends her to cake baking, but ""If Women's Lib can help to free women from the 'White Tornado' and. . .Dr. Ginott. . .it will be a lot more fun to be a woman and mother."" Or re the young: their insistence on idealism and political justice is a good influence on world-weary adults. She soft-pedals divorce, separation, and affairs -- which may represent courageous attempts to live more ""meaningfully"" -- but ""strong ties of caring"" will weather the storms. There is a chapter on individual and group therapy, which the author recommends with qualifications, if only as an aid to becoming ""more sensitive, compassionate, insightful."" Much of what Mrs. LeShan says is salutary enough, although her frame of reference -- urban, educated, professional, middle-class, politically savvy, and activist-oriented -- limits small hometown identification.

Pub Date: March 26, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION