Midlife Crisis: a Psychoanalytic Study

Every person faces a mid-life crisis, or as it is called, a mid-life crisis. The more successful a person is, the higher the ambition, the more difficult the crisis is. The social role of a person, the biological state is changing, physical changes are becoming more noticeable, and value orientations are also changing. Often, the symptoms of a crisis are depression, self-pity, and neurotic symptoms that bring suffering to a person. This paper analyzes the phenomenon of mid-life crisis from a psychoanalytic point of view. From the psychoanalytic point of view, the mid-life crisis occurs at the age of 35-40 years and is a natural period of human development. At the same time, the midlife crisis is experienced in different ways for each subject, which is due to differences in the individual structure of the mental apparatus and mental balance at the beginning of the critical period. The sum of previous life experiences, neuroses, and narcissistic distress largely determine how a subject will react and behave in relation to their aging. An important neoplasm of the mid-life crisis is the awareness of one's own mortality. A psychoanalytic study of the phenomenon of mid-life crisis was conducted on the example of the main character Lester in the film "American Beauty". We looked at the symptoms and signs of a midlife crisis that are present in the main character. Among them, we can note the biological, psychological and social prerequisites, as well as the imposed roles that the main character unconsciously plays, gradually sinking into a depressive state. An important symptom of the mid-life crisis in the main character is the awareness of his own mortality. Then we analyzed the speech and behavior of the main character for possible fixations of any of the phases of psychosexual development. The similarities and differences between the midlife crisis and the crisis of adolescence in the main character were also considered. And the relationship of the main character with his wife and Angela is analyzed, as the relationship between the systems of the internal structure of the psyche of the Id, Ego and Superego. Thus, it can be noted that the considered case of a midlife crisis in the main character of the film "American Beauty" is an illustrative example of a mid-life crisis.