ABSTRACT
The angle from which I have chosen to write this article is no doubt unusual and merits an explanation. Any definition I may give of “midlife crisis” will be intrinsically bound up with my own theoretical-clinical perspective. I find, moreover, that the concept is one that I have never used in any of my previous works. On the other hand, if someone I know outside the framework provided by the psychoanalytical method goes through some kind of a crisis, I often find myself thinking in terms of midlife, even if I am not aware of anything that could link such a crisis to that person in terms of his or her unconscious mind.
