ABSTRACT
In describing the pattern of decline or failure within a stable life structure, Levinson says that some representatives of this group fail in gross and obvious ways during the settling-down period, while others achieve a good deal of external success but fail in certain crucial respects that make the entire enterprise seem pointless or fruitless in their eyes. 1 Among the subjects in Levinson’s study who fit in this category, none made significant professional advances in their late thirties. A few resigned themselves to this fact and found other ways—family, community life, and so on—to gain a sense of overall progress in their lives but, in most cases, the failure to advance professionally had a negative effect on these other aspects of life as well.
