Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to Finally, Really Grow Up by James Hollis

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Synopsis

What does it really mean to be a grown up in today's world? We assume that once we "get it together" with the right job, marry the right person, have children, and buy a home, all is settled and well. But adulthood presents varying levels of growth, and is rarely the respite of stability we expected. Turbulent emotional shifts can take place anywhere between the age of thirty-five and seventy when we question the choices we've made, realize our limitations, and feel stuck— commonly known as the "midlife crisis." Jungian psycho-analyst James Hollis believes it is only in the second half of life that we can truly come to know who we are and thus create a life that has meaning. In Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, Hollis explores the ways we can grow and evolve to fully become ourselves when the traditional roles of adulthood aren't quite working for us, revealing a new way of uncovering and embracing our authentic selves. Offering wisdom to anyone facing a career that no longer seems fulfilling, a long-term relationship that has shifted, or family transitions that raise issues of aging and mortality, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life provides a reassuring message and a crucial bridge across this critical passage of adult development. BACKCOVER: "...offers insight into the process of finding true meaning later in life... challenging... earnest."
—The Houston Chronicle

"Nourishing... Like a master chef, James Hollis knows that good food for the soul cannot be ordered to go."
—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland

"...a deep Jungian exploration of individuation...humane and compassionate...[Hollis'] focus onthe underlying meaning of life will resonate for many..."
—Publishers Weekly

"Everyone seems to be obsessing about the monetary cost of the graying of the American population, but there's very little talk of the soul. James Hollis, one of the foremost Jungian analytical psychologists in the world, has plenty to say about the soul in Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life...erudite and cultured but also accessible."
—The Portland Tribune

"How to find your way out of the woods (figuratively)...what's at stake is what Hollis calls the biggest project of midlife: reclaiming one's personal authority..."
—More magazine

"Midlife is a time when people can lose their way and flounder. Jungian analyst James Hollis knows this terrain, describes it well and asks the important questions that can lead to clarity, maturity, and meaning"
—Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., author of Goddesses in Everywoman and Gods in Everyman

"The Search for Meaning in the Second Half of Life contains the writing of a gentle and insightful soul who does not bog down in analytical dryness, but speaks to and teaches from the heart. A combination of genuine vision and genuine humanity is a rare and valuable gift, and readers will find both in this work."
—Clarissa Pinkola Estés, author of Women Who Run with the Wolves

"James Hollis is the most lucid thinker I know about the complexities and complexes that interfere with living a full life. His broad background in literature, philosophy, and Jungian psychology is everywhere present in this important book, which, as it strips away illusions, posits the soul-work that's necessary for the difficult task of making our lives meaningful. He's one of our great teachers and healers."
—Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet

"James Hollis's new book is a work of soul-making. It brings solace and wisdom to those of us who finds ourselves in a dark wood, in the second half of life."
—Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry

Publishers Weekly

The midlife crisis is familiar enough, but as in previous works, Hollis (The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning at Midlife), brings a Jungian perspective to it that goes deeper than the idea of finding mere self-fulfillment. That feeling that you've been living the wrong life, that you're lost and confused, is "an insurgency of the soul," he says poetically, which "overthrows the conscious conduct of our lives." This mental suffering presents an opportunity to embark on a journey transcending expectations foisted on us by others, such as parents, and to find true self-knowledge. Hollis offers not a simple how-to on facing this crisis, but rather a deep Jungian exploration of individuation, the process of becoming the person one was meant to be. Sprinkling his discussion with references to prose, drama, poetry and popular culture as well as examples from patient histories, Hollis recommends working toward a mature spirituality by being true to personal experience and embracing the mystery of life. This spirituality is a reconnection to the voice of the soul, dramatized by images that appear to us in dreams. Hollis is humane and compassionate regarding the human condition, and his focus on the underlying meaning of life will resonate for many, though they may not respond to his somewhat mystical, god-laden language. (May 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Biography

JAMES HOLLIS received an A.B. from Manchester College and a Ph.D. from Drew University. He taught humanities for twenty-six years in various colleges and universities before becoming a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, where he received a diploma in Analytical Psychology.