Mid-life crisis is not a luxury of the affluent -- it is a meritable part of everyone's life. Brewi and Brennan celebrate the mid-life experience as an essential element in the human journey and a gift to the flowering of the personality. They address four stages of the process: the archetypal perspective, the task of coming to terms with the "Shadow personality", working with the inner child, so that the child can lead the adult into this new stage of living, and exploring Wisdom, the fruit of living. Each person's spirituality is unique. Each of us lives out the image of God that we are. What may be appropriate in youth may become a prison in mid-life. Recognizing the archetypal dimensions of human life, our commonalities help each of us nurture and support growth into the uniqueness that is our own. This book is addressed to people in mid-life who are struggling to understand, identify, and grow through a new experience of themselves as they live into, and out of, what must be called the "second half of life".

Janice Brewi and Anne Brennan are the founders of Mid-Life Directions, an organization that supports individuals through mid-life crises and beyond. This is their foundational work, back in print, updated, and with a new Preface.