To be fair to Polden, she means it as a metaphor. 11 Talk about a midlife crisis! Infidelity, drinking, the death of a beloved parent, and the need for some serious family counseling at the end. In her 2002 book about the midlife crisis, Regeneration, psychotherapist Jane Polden takes as her paradigm the story of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. 10 Others doubt that Ariès went far enough. Medievalist Mary Dove paints a very different picture in The Perfect Age of Man’s Life, citing the Middle English narratives Piers Plowman and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which draw on Aristotle’s theory of middle age as the prime of life, the body being most fully developed from thirty to thirty-five, the mind at forty-nine. Writing with wisdom and wit, Setiya makes a wry but passionate case for philosophy as a guide to life.

And you will learn what it would mean to live in the present, how it could solve your midlife crisis, and why meditation helps.Ranging from Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and John Stuart Mill to Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, as well as drawing on Setiya's own experience, Midlife combines imaginative ideas, surprising insights, and practical advice. You will be introduced to philosophical consolations for mortality. Philosophical wisdom and practical advice for overcoming the problems of middle age How can you reconcile yourself with the lives you will never lead, with possibilities foreclosed, and with nostalgia for lost youth? How can you accept the failings of the past, the sense of futility in the tasks that consume the present, and the prospect of death that blights the future? In this self-help book with a difference, Kieran Setiya confronts the inevitable challenges of adulthood and middle age, showing how philosophy can help you thrive.You will learn why missing out might be a good thing, how options are overrated, and when you should be glad you made a mistake.

Setiya midlife