Midlife Crisis Research Articles

From High Modernism to Middlebrow Culture

From High Modernism to Middlebrow Culture Warner Berthoff (bio) Edmund Wilson, Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1920s & 30s. Library of America, 2007. xiv + 958 pages. $40; Edmund Wilson, Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1930s & 40s. Library of America, 2007. xiv + 980 pages. $40. Both volumes were edited by Lewis M. Dabney. On August 18, 1962, Edmund Wilson wrote to a friend, the publisher and editor Jason Epstein, expressing satisfaction with the latter’s proposal to the Bollingen Foundation “of bringing out in a complete and compact form the principal American [literary] classics.” This was a project, Wilson said, that he had “been trying for years to interest some publisher in.” His model was the famous Éditions de la Pléiade, “beautifully produced and admirably printed thin-paper volumes, ranging from 800 to 1500 pages.” [End Page 125] It took nearly two decades for Wilson’s idea to be realized; in the interim he continued to campaign for it, most notably (notoriously?) in his scandalous (to academicians) attack on the cumbersome editions of Emerson, Hawthorne, and others sponsored by the Modern Language Association in a pamphlet entitled The Fruits of the MLA (1968). Continuing resistance to the project was based as much as anything on fears of its marketability. Was there still a well-informed reading public large enough to make it pay? But, when the first “beautifully produced and admirably printed thin-paper volumes” of the Library of America appeared in the early 1980s, they were an immediate publishing success. Works by Melville, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Mark Twain sold well as expected; but perhaps nothing better proved the existence of a ready and waiting readership than the brisk sales of two volumes of Francis Parkman’s history of France and England in North America (nos. 11 and 12 in the Library’s series). Some later volumes have languished, such as certain lesser novels of William Dean Howells, but in the main the Library of America has justified Wilson’s early championing. There is, then, a fine appropriateness, roughly a quarter of a century since the Library’s inception, in the publication in two volumes (nos. 176 and 177) of Edmund Wilson’s literary essays and reviews of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, containing in full the writings collected in Axel’s Castle (1932), The Triple Thinkers (1938), The Wound and the Bow (1941), Classics and Commercials (1950), and The Shores of Light (1952), with a handful of previously uncollected reviews. At least two more collections of Wilson’s nonfictional writings are conceivable, if not at the moment certain, covering his voluminous work on subjects—beginning with The American Jitters (1932)—not specifically literary. He did, after 1950, continue to write on current work he particularly admired, like Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago (1958), or on figures, Edward Gorey for one, to whom he felt nobody else had paid proper attention. And there is, of course, his massive compilation, Patriotic Gore (1962), on the literature of the Civil War. We may be sure, if these collections do come, that they will have the same attractive physical shape and design that after 1950, publishing with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Wilson insisted on for each new book. Looked at in the round, we see a chief interest in these first two collections is the distinct shift in critical temper and tone from the 1920s into the 1940s—a shift that corresponds to and effectively traces an unmistakable change, a falling off and wearing away, from the confident creative achievements of “high modernism” celebrated in Axel’s Castle to a drabber, palpably dispirited time. In part this shift involved tribulations in Wilson’s personal affairs, perhaps even a midlife crisis of sorts, as well as a noticeable decline from the Joyce-Yeats-early-Hemingway era. An evident nostalgia for the time of his own coming-of-age comes into much of his 1940s reviewing, as when—commenting on the Viking Portable Dorothy Parker—he recalled a time when the behavior of literary people was in every way “freer”; they [End Page 126] could love, travel, stay up late “as extravagantly as they pleased,” and risk any irresponsibility in order to write “whatever seemed to...

Why men die first: how to lengthen your lifespan

Introduction Born Behind the 8-Ball Failure to Thrive Why Johnny Can't Read Programmed to Win Fight or Flight The Wandering Eye Mid-Life Crisis It Ain't Over Till It's Over

Technology Focus: Mature Field Revitalization (January 2009)

Technology Focus Even as new discoveries are developed and produced, substantial additional reserves can be secured by enhancing recovery from mature fields. Mature fields have the potential to contribute significantly to future reserves—provided that recovery can be optimized. Usually, it is the new discoveries that capture the attention of the oil industry; however, 70% of the hydrocarbon liquids produced in the world today actually come from mature fields. With most of the world's potential oil provinces having already been explored and major new discoveries becoming increasingly rare, mature fields are destined to play an ever-more-prominent role in energy supply. It is generally accepted that 30 to 35% of the original oil in place will be recoverable by the end of the normal production period. However, advances in technology (fueled by higher oil prices) are making it feasible to access remaining reserves. Considering the substantial quantities of remaining oil at stake, boosting the recovery factor on all the world's oil fields by a mere 1% would cover 3 years of worldwide consumption. Techniques to improve the recovery factor include: secondary- and tertiary-recovery schemes, horizontal and multilateral drilling, improved perforation and stimulation methods, new completion techniques, advanced logging procedures, and optimal placement of the new wells. Mature fields, however, offer their own set of challenges. In addition to dealing with aging installations and earmarking investments to access additional reserves, all aspects must be considered carefully from a project-economics point of view. Water is another problem in reservoirs nearing the end of their production life; most oil companies produce far more water than oil, raising environmental concerns and water-handling expenses. Consequently, mature fields would require a strategy that is based on tapping bypassed oil, improving recovery from existing producing zones, cutting costs, and implementing leading-edge technologies to maximize production. Mature Field Revitalization additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org SPE 113684 • "Mature-Field Rejuvenation of a Tight Gas Carbonate Utilizing Coiled-Tubing Underbalanced-Drilling Techniques" by C. Mykytiw, SPE, FX Solutions Group, et al. SPE 113271 • "Techniques in Marginal and Mature Fields in the Pannonian Basin, Hungary: Case Study" by A. Holoda, MOL, et al. SPE 112940 • "The Omar Field (NE Syria) Is Overcoming Its Mid-Life Crisis" by J. Neidhardt, Shell, et al. SPE 112586 • "Horizontal Extended-Reach Re-Entry Drilling of Sidetracks at Sakhalin Island Increases Oil Production From Mature Oil Fields" by M.L. Drnec, SPE, Schlumberger, et al.

La consolante by Anna Gavalda

w I > I z I w H ^ I p I < H I H H D I I ^ o I he can become part of a culture of cruelty. Each chapter of the novel is a self-contained story thatbuilds toward an eerie or absurd climax. What holds the stories together is the reflective consciousness of the child. At the end ofmany of these episodes, the realist trappings fall away; what remains is the boy's urge to run, to get away and be somewhere else. East Central Europe is more divided today, its societies more politicized, than ever before.Yet The White King was acclaimed in both Hungary and Romania, and ithas been a major critical success in the West. Perhaps the main reason for this is that the novel's depiction of personal and communal experienc es touches depths thatno political speech or newspaper article can ever hope to reach. Ivan Sanders Columbia University Anna Gavalda. La consolante. Paris. Dilettante. 2008. 637 pages. 24.50. isbn978-2-84263-152-9 Since thepublication in 1999 of her collection of well-crafted short sto ries, Je voudrais que quelqu'un mat tende quelque part, Anna Gavalda's fictionalworks have been getting lengthier, culminating in La conso lante, a novel that seems even longer than its 637 pages. Unfortunately, this is not the sort of narrative that one reads avidly, hoping itwould never end. In fact, it feels like two separate narratives, with the reader left wondering why the noticeable emotional closure that occurs rough ly at themidpoint of the book is followed by a new and apparently unrelated storyline. The author's repeated attempts to intertwine the two remain unconvincing, lead ing to the question ofwhether she should have produced two separate novels. The main character of La conso lante, Charles Balanda, is a success fulmiddle-aged architectwho feels increasingly frustrated in both his professional and private lives. His full-blown midlife crisis is set off by a letter announcing the death of Anouk, themother of a former childhood friend, Alexis. Anouk had once been a rolemodel forCharles as well as an unrequited love inter est. Long flashbacks take the reader back to Charles's early formative years and to the ways in which he gradually lost the enthusiasm of his youth, just as he lost both the friendship ofAlexis and theuncon ventionally nurturing influence of Anouk. Determined to find out what happened to thewoman who had been so important during his youth, Charles seeks out the long lostAlexis, distancing himself in the process from his career and from his family, consisting of his live-in girlfriendand her daughter. Finding Alexis, and discovering the truth about how Anouk died, do not lead to a cathartic conclusion. Instead, Charles meets a woman who is very different from his elegant Parisian girlfriend, who in fact embodies some of theeccentricqualities of the deceased Anouk, and whose impact on Charles's life will occupy the sec ond half of thenovel. Gavalda draws out her tale of transformation and reconciliation through a combination of digres sions and long-omitted plot details. Previously known forher sparsely written, surprisingly emotional sto rylines, in La consolante she accu mulates stylistic flourishes and redundancies. What is presum ably intended as a reflectionof the main character's anguish and con fusion quickly becomes gimmicky and annoying: the accumulation of descriptive sentences lacking a sub jectpronoun and simply beginning with a verb. Such sentences some times coalesce into one protracted narrative monologue made up of fragments linked together by com mas (see pp. 121-23). This sort ?f longwinded writerly experimenta tion is less thangroundbreaking and hardly felicitous. Anna Gavalda is a refreshinglyoriginal voice in the world of French letters. What she demonstrates in La consolante is that her talent as a storyteller lies in shorter pieces of work. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Karl lagnemma. The Expeditions. New York. Dial. 2008. 322 pages. $24. isbn 978-0-385-33595-9 A research scientist in themechanical engineering department atMIT and a winner of theParis Review Plimp ton Prize, Karl lagnemma has drawn on his scientificknowledge to create a stunning first novel about sixteen year-old Elisha Stone's passionate journey of discovery. "He toldMr. Brush about the empty shelves in his boyhood bedroom, his desire to see them filledwith every species in theworld." This great desire of Eli sha's draws him away fromthe 1844 world of Newell, Massachusetts? and hismartinet minister fatherand dying mother?to the frontiertown ofDetroit and eventually to thewil derness of Michigan's upper pen insula. His traveling companions, and mentors, are two sharply etched characters, Silas Brush, an unethical soldier of fortune, and George Tif fin, a professor out to prove at any cost that all humans are descended from one source and are therefore brothers. Add to thisElisha's grief stricken father,Reverend William I.IIIIIIIIIII.Illlllllllllllllll.Illllllllllllll.I.IIIIIIIII.Mill.Illllllllllll.I.Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.lllllllillillllllllllllllllllllllllll^^H 66 i WorldLiterature Today ^^^H ...

The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma

The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma

Haemoglobin A1c in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes mellitus

Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is due to celebrate its 40th birthday. Many people would argue that the clinical studies relating the test to diabetes complications while in its late 20s are...

General practice under the hammer

The best career decision I have made so far was to leave my partnership in a pleasant practice in a nice part of Newcastle to work in a struggling practice in a needy part of Sunderland as a salaried GP. At the age of 47 this might very reasonably be to a straightforward case of mid-life crisis. The notion of really ‘making a difference’ in the world is something that often appeals when one sees less years ahead of you than are behind you. The real motivation was probably much more to do with people like Julian Tudor Hart who coined the phrase ‘The Inverse Care Law’ and spent his life trying to address it in a deprived mining community in Wales. The practice I joined had been unable to recruit a GP for over 2 years, being reliant entirely on GP locum support. Despite the huge challenge facing them, they had continued to provide a personal and caring service to ‘their’ patients through sheer determination and hard work. My role was simply to act as a catalyst for a team who already epitomised the best of the NHS with their enormous commitment and goodwill in seeking to provide the best of care with very limited resources. The practice quickly developed, soon becoming a GP training practice and achieving nearly full QOF points. The patients repeatedly expressed their delight at once again ‘having their own doctors’ and especially ‘having doctors who listened’. The PCT meanwhile were starting to progress their plans to let go of the management of the practice. They were clearly under some pressure to focus on commissioning rather than providing but also to develop a …

A mid-life crisis for aging theory

From yeast to mice, limiting food intake slows aging and extends lifespan. Activators of the sirtuins, enzymes famously linked to this process, promise a wealth of new drugs—but the sirtuin hypothesis is now coming under fire. Ken Garber reports.

Teaching Supportive Psychotherapy to Psychiatric Residents

"Mr. A" is a 45-year-old married teacher pursuing a doctorate in education at a local university. Although he completed the course work without difficulty, he feels "stuck" and unable to move ahead with his dissertation. In this setting, his chronic, low-grade depression has worsened and now includes profound feelings of humiliation, despair, and hopelessness, near-panic-like anxiety, insomnia, and trouble functioning at his teaching job. His wife urges him to get help after he begins to talk about an impulse to jump from their balcony. Mr. A went through a period of depression, heavy drinking, and narcotics addiction in his early 20s, after a sports-related injury forced him to drop out of college. He was referred to a psychiatrist but felt the psychotherapy had been "too openended" and "a waste of time and money." With his wife's support, he managed to stop drinking and using narcotics and has remained sober ever since. He went on to become a valued high school teacher and coach, receiving several medals for excellence in teaching. Later he was awarded a full scholarship to an Ivy League university, where he earned a master's degree in education. Asked about any other events in his life that may have contributed to his current depression, Mr. A mentions that his father was a heavy drinker who used to chase him around the house with a loaded gun when drunk. The father was diagnosed with cancer shortly after Mr. A started the doctoral program and died after a brief illness, during which Mr. A lived with and helped care for him. The second-year resident to whom Mr. A has been assigned admits to her supervisor that she is already having a "sinking feeling" about Mr. A. He says he is too depressed to talk about his future, much less make any important decisions about his life. He is also reporting debilitating side effects from the antidepressant she has prescribed and has warned her that he is "sensitive" to most drugs. The resident describes him as "not just stuck, but sticky-I feel like I'm wading in molasses." She finds herself wanting to end sessions early but tends to run late because of his last-minute reports of alarming physical symptoms or fleeting thoughts about "blowing his brains out." The resident has noticed that although Mr. A is relentless in his protestations of worthlessness, he likes to wear a sweatshirt from the Ivy League school he attended, and he enjoys acting as an auxiliary therapist in groups-"a pretty good one, too." The resident adds ruefully, "I guess he just needs support, but we haven't had that course yet. What do you suggest?".

MIDLIFE CRISES IN DWARF GALAXIES IN THE NGC 5353/4 GROUP

This third paper in a series about the dwarf galaxy populations in groups within the Local Supercluster concerns the intermediate mass (2.1 × 1013 M ☉) NGC 5353/4 Group with a core dominated by S0 systems and a periphery of mostly spiral systems. Dwarf galaxies are strongly concentrated toward the core. The mass-to-light ratio M/LR = 105 M ☉/L ☉ is a factor of 3 lower than for the two groups studied earlier in the series. The properties of the group suggest it is much less dynamically evolved than those two groups of early-type galaxies. By comparison, the NGC 5353/4 Group lacks superluminous systems but has a large fraction of intermediate-luminosity galaxies; or equivalently, a luminosity function with a flatter faint-end slope. The luminosity function for the NGC 5353/4 Group should steepen as the intermediate-luminosity galaxies merge. Evidence for the ongoing collapse of the group is provided by the unusually large incidence of star-formation activity in small galaxies with early morphological types. The pattern in the distribution of galaxies with activity suggests a succession of infall events. Residual gas in dwarfs that enter the group is used up in sputtering events. The resolution of midlife crises is exhaustion.

Crime Victimization and Divorce

Extemsive research has been conducted regarding factors contributing to the breakdown of marriage, focusing on problems such as infidelity, domestic violence, money problems and mid-life crises. This study explores a new question: does crime victimization contribute to the dissolution of marriage? Unique information from a national panel survey, the National Crime Victimization Survey, was analyzed in a longitudinal format to determine whether married crime victims were more likely than non-victims to become divorced or separated in the six to twelve months following the crime. Logistic regression analysis indicated that crime victims were generally more likely to experience marital disruption. Robbery victims were 2.7 times more likely (significantly so) than non-victims to be divorced or separated within six to twelve months of the crime, while this risk was non-significantly higher for burglary, assault, and theft victims. Those victimized by their spouse were nearly nine times more likely to later be divorced or separated. Assault victimization had a more detrimental impact on marriage for women than for men. Otherwise, the effects of victimization were similar for men and women. Although it has been speculated that sexual assault could jeopardize marriages because some husbands would view their victimized wives as ‘damaged goods’, we found no significant effect on marital disruption. We speculate that men in recent times may have become less likely to devalue victimized women in this way.

Sosein

In light of the increase in life expectancy in the 20th century, a growing number of people are making significant midlife changes. This article tries to steer a way between two cultural myths about this life period. The first is that the only sane solution of the midlife crisis is acceptance of growing limitations. The second is the idea that, given drive and a vision, we are capable of boundless change. The alternative middle way proposed is called “active self-acceptance.” It is based on Karl Jaspers's notion that we are all condemned to failure vis-à-vis boundary situations and that there is a Sosein (being thus and no other) that is recalcitrant to change. Jaspers's biography and an extended case example show that active self-acceptance is not passive resignation but initiation of a process of self-transformation in which lucid self-knowledge and acceptance are combined into a process that allows full self-development.

Trainee Counselling Psychologist Prize: Joint runner-up Death and mid life: Why an understanding of life-span development is essential for the practice of counselling psychology

The clients that come to counselling psychology do not live in a vacuum. They are located in time and space and are faced with the particular challenges presented by their contexts and their interactions with these contexts. This essay tries to show that an awareness of life-span development is essential for counselling psychologists in order to contextualise their clients’ experiences and use this understanding as a resource for therapeutic work. It argues in particular that the existential theme of finitude needs to be considered as impacting on life-span development. It starts by introducing the life-span perspective and its implications for practice and goes on to exemplify this view by focusing on the subject of death – particularly on death awareness and death anxiety – and its influence on people’s lives, especially during what has been called ‘the mid-life crisis’, before applying some of the ideas to the fictional character of Ivanov from Chekhov’s eponymous play. It tries to show that death assumes special significance in mid life and that this is not merely a challenge in counselling psychology practice but also an opportunity for growth.

Ontwikkelingsamewerking vir Afrika, met besondere aandag aan ’n vennootskapsverhouding

Development co-operation for Africa, with special reference to a partnership relation The problem to be investigated is whether development cooperation between especially the rich Northern part of the world and the African continent (including South Africa) is necessary or advisable. This question can be divided into the following three sub-questions: (1) Does Africa need development aid? (2) Will help from outside produce the needed results? (3) How can such cooperation be structured in the most efficient way? The three answers to these questions are: (1) Without outside help Africa will not be able to escape from its poverty trap. (2) In spite of the fact that development cooperation is at the moment experiencing a “mid-life crisis”, both practical and Christian principial reasons do not allow its termination. (3) Many weak points in the existing forms of development cooperation may be overcome with the application of a genuine partnership relationship.

A quantitative analysis of the menopause experience of Indian women living in Sydney

To examine the experience of menopause in Indian women (aged 45-65 years) in Sydney, and the relationship between sociodemographic factors and menopausal symptoms, and also to explore the cultural context. Two hundred and three women were interviewed about their menopausal experiences in the preceding week using the 29-item Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire. The mean age of menopause for Indian women was found to be earlier than in other groups in the published literature, at 48.21 years. While there were higher scores for physical symptoms than for other symptoms, and there were significant differences between perimenopausal women and the others, it was found that the prevalence of classical menopausal symptoms was lower in Indian women than that found in Caucasians. However, physical and several psychological symptoms were found to be more prevalent than the usual vasomotor symptoms. Unemployed women and women with a tertiary level of education were found to experience a significantly higher score for all symptoms in our sample. Lower scores of menopause symptoms indicate that Indian women have fewer complaints of symptoms and a positive attitude towards menopause. Somatic symptoms are multifactorial in nature and could be because of health problems associated with ageing, midlife crises and cultural influences. Further detailed studies could examine the important relationship between cultural lifestyle factors and climacteric symptoms.

On the Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on the Depression and Emotional Crisis of Women in Mid-life Crisis

On the Effect of Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy on the Depression and Emotional Crisis of Women in Mid-life Crisis

And a-traveling I will go....

TRAVEL NURSING. All the students talk about it, and many graduates are eager to complete their first year of practice so that they can join the travel craze. But a half-century old faculty member who has not practiced without students in more than 20 years? No way! Call it a midlife crisis or a whim, but after hearing secondhand about travel nursing for several years, I decided to explore for myself. The hefty salaries I had heard about and the opportunity to travel to another part of the country for free beckoned. Upon the recommendation of a patient's spouse who worked as a traveler, I investigated a travel nursing company, completed the application online, and began talking with a recruiter. The recruiter (not a nurse) referred me to a nurse in the credentialing department who reviewed my skills checklist to assess if I had the ability to really work as a nurse. Everyone I spoke with asked how much direct patient care I had provided in the past year. I continued to explain that I supervised eight students and all of their patients, which, in my opinion, was as difficult, if not more difficult, than carrying a full patient load myself. No one bought it. Here I was - a nurse with 30 years of experience, a doctoral degree, and more than 25 years as a faculty member - and everyone was questioning my skills. Finally, the company decided to give me the opportunity to interview with hospitals. The recruiter reviewed geographic, clinical, shift, and salary preferences to narrow the list from nearly 10,000 positions to fewer than a dozen. My name and credentials were forwarded to the hospitals in which I expressed an interest, and the unit managers/clinical directors contacted me for interviews. My intention was not to be arrogant, but I do have advanced degrees in nursing, and that may have been a deterrent to their interest in me. Only one potential employer had previous experience with a faculty member as traveler, and he worked part time in a hospital during the academic year. Although I had several interviews, I only found one hospital position attractive. By this time, my planned start date was looming, and I had no idea how much detailed paperwork would be needed before I could begin. And then I started to have second thoughts. How could I leave my home, husband, adult children, and dog for eight weeks and travel 3,000 miles to pursue a whim? After receiving an offer, I asked for one more day to carefully consider all facets of this potential experience and to discuss the position with my husband. I finally made peace with my decision. A small hospital in a rural area would be just right for me. The next six days were spent getting ready. The travel company was very thorough in assuring that I was a real nurse and required many signed, notarized, and fingerprinted documents before I got on the plane. I was exhausted before I started. I usually consider myself a very detail-oriented person, but I was overwhelmed by the volume of forms required to verify my identity, home address (very important as a traveler), tax status, licensure, benefits, and skills (again). Thankfully, I could fax and email everything. But the many tests validating my competence as an RN heightened my anxiety. The company was great about accelerating all details since I was to start in less than a week. The housing department found a place for me to live within a few days and provided all the information I would need to locate my residence. A contact person at the site helped me decide what to pack for the eight-week assignment in a totally unfamiliar geographic region of the country. Relocating from the humid, triple-digit temperatures of the South to the cool Northwest would take some adjustment in my wardrobe. And getting a flight to the state capital so I could obtain my temporary nursing license and renting a car for the 400mile trek to my home-away-from-home took more energy. I was nearly exhausted by the time I settled in for the long cross-country plane trip. …

The Midlife Crisis of the Cosmos

The Midlife Crisis of the Cosmos

THE ‘DISCIPLINED IMAGINATION’

The Australian Research Council (ARC) grant application that resulted in the award of my Australian Professorial Fellowship (APF) grew out of an academic ‘mid-life crisis’. Like many female profess...

Nordic Models of Citizenship: Lessons from Social History for Theorising Policy Change in the ‘Age of Globalisation’

Nordic Models of Citizenship: Lessons from Social History for Theorising Policy Change in the ‘Age of Globalisation’