Sosein

Active Self-Acceptance in Midlife

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9020689
AutoresCarlo Strenger (Tel Aviv University, autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Volume49
Fascículo1
Páginas46-65
Data de publicação2007-10-24
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Humanistic Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-1678 • E-ISSN: 1552-650X
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022167808319725
OpenAlexW2015765743
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas11

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

Aesthetics · Biography · Epistemology · Expectancy theory · Life expectancy · Mythology · Period (music · Political science · Process (computing · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Theology · Aging and Gerontology Research · Computer Science · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology