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What is a Crisis in Adults and Why is It Necessary?
In popular psychology, the word "crisis" is associated with something difficult and heavy, something to be avoided. While childhood and adolescent crises are now widely discussed and accepted as a normal and necessary stage of development, most adults do not even consider the existence of age-related crises of maturity. Psychology clearly defines them: the crisis of thirty, the midlife crisis (40–45 years), the late-age crisis (55–60 years). Those aware of them often consider experiencing them shameful, unworthy of a "strong person."
Avoiding the crisis, forbidding oneself from experiencing unpleasant feelings, requires an immense expenditure of energy. Consequences of such suppression can include psychosomatic illnesses, which have psychological prerequisites. Furthermore, it can impair the quality of professional performance, especially for those who work with people, as crisis avoidance is accompanied by deep depressive experiences that cause aggressive outbursts and hinder interaction with others.
Why do we need crises?
If we view adult life as a journey, crises are necessary "stops." Maturity does not occur instantly, and over time, a person needs moments to:
- Reflect on past experience and recognize its value.
- Check the direction and speed of movement, adjusting them according to new aspirations.
- Search for new internal resources that accumulate throughout life.
Crises are those times when a person reflects on the path traveled, re-evaluates values, finds new aspects within themselves, and moves forward happy and healthy. This is only possible when a person "allows themselves" the crisis and consciously engages with it.
Psychological Concepts of Crises: From Destruction to Creation
In psychology, the problem of crises is viewed as an organic part of the process of personality development.
L.S. Vygotsky understood development as a process that unfolds contradictorily, through the emergence and resolution of internal conflicts. A crisis (critical period) is a time of qualitative positive changes and the transition of the personality to a new, higher stage of development. Its content is the disintegration of the established social situation and the emergence of a new one. For adults, crises are not as rigidly tied to age and can mature gradually or arise suddenly due to sharp social changes.
According to E. Erikson, the essence of every crisis is the choice a person must make between two alternative solutions to age-related developmental tasks. For him, a crisis is a conflict of opposing tendencies arising from reaching a certain level of psychological maturity and social demands. A crisis is not destructive but is a critical period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential.
D. Levinson noted that life consists of alternating periods of stable state and periods of change. A crisis occurs when a person realizes that they are not fulfilling their potential or have overestimated/underestimated certain aspects of life. The key realization: it is necessary to change something within oneself, not just in the environment, and begin building a new life.
Psychologists of the existential-humanistic direction (R. Assagioli, S. Grof, A. Maslow, C. Jung) view crisis in terms of spiritual growth. S. Grof argues that a spiritual crisis, although it can be difficult, possesses enormous evolutionary and healing potential, opening the way to a fuller life and favorable personality changes.
Ann Yeomans identifies three periods in a crisis:
- The period of destruction: The breakdown of the old worldview and attitude towards oneself. This is a necessary "small death" of past experience, without which true creation is impossible.
- The intermediate period: Old models no longer work, and new ones have not yet been created. A time for re-evaluating values and posing questions that currently have no answers.
- The period of creation: Requires caution to avoid passivity (desire for guarantees) or excessive haste.
It is important to note that a crisis situation can be caused not only by failure but also by a significant life achievement (e.g., the birth of a child or reaching the peak of success). Failure to recognize the qualitative change in life during this period can lead to the crisis intensifying and positive experiences shifting to negative ones.
Typology of Crises in Adult Life
Adult crises can have different natures, but the unifying parameter of all is the necessity of choice.
Traditionally, age-related crises of maturity are distinguished — the crisis of 30, the midlife crisis (40–45 years), and the late-age crisis (55–60 years, often associated with retirement). These crises are normative psychosocial because they are necessary for development and are determined by both individual and social causes. Unfortunately, age-related crises in adults often take on an existential character, including problems of the meaning of life and individual existence.
In addition to age-related crises, the following types can be observed in adults:
- Spiritual crises, a common feature of which is a turning point towards higher values.
- Personal crises, arising from experiencing a particular difficult situation.
- Family crises, related to the family's transition to a new stage of the life cycle (e.g., the birth of a child, the "separation" of an adolescent from the family).
- Professional crises, caused by professional growth or a change in the field of activity.
A crisis can be understood as a situation necessitating choice, in which there is a sequential movement from the unconscious, passive, and irresponsible choice to a fuller understanding, an active position, and the acceptance of a responsible decision.
⚖️ Peculiarities of Maturity Crises and Complicating Factors
The course of age-related crises of maturity significantly depends on a person's attitude toward the passage of time and their fear of the future. Since the future often causes anxiety and is viewed negatively, while the past is viewed positively, age denial arises, along with a painful perception of changes in appearance. At the root of this fear lies the awareness of the finiteness of one's own existence and the fear of death.
Social factors also strongly influence the emergence and progression of crises:
- The stereotype of negative perception of old age: In modern culture, with its "cult of youth" and success, old age is associated with degradation and loneliness.
- A system of values that contrasts the significance of the individual with material well-being and social status.
- The cult of rationality and success: Dictates being strong-willed and rational, which leads to the accumulation of emotions and negatively affects health.
- Expansion of professional opportunities and blurred life stereotypes: Although this offers more choices, it can complicate the crisis process.
- Social, economic, and political instability: Forces a person to independently resolve the question of the meaning of life, which gives every age-related crisis an existential meaning.
⚠️ What complicates the experience of a crisis?
In modern society, there are many factors that can complicate a person's passage through a crisis. The most likely complications are avoidance of the crisis experience:
- Going "sideways": Masking unfinished internal work with various external changes (changing image, job, marital status) or addictions (workaholism, alcoholism).
- Going "backward": Infantilization (external or verbal assertion of a younger status or emphasizing a weak position through illness).
- Projecting the crisis onto others: Shifting responsibility for one's emotional distress onto relatives or leaders. This leads to "getting stuck" in the crisis and a decline in quality of life.
- Failure to complete previous crises: If a person lacks the experience of successfully completing past crises, they face the problems of all previous stages when confronting the current crisis.
✅ Criteria for Successful Crisis Passage
A crisis is considered successfully navigated if a person:
- Accepts responsibility for their internal distress.
- Views this as a signal for the necessity of internal changes, without self-pity or complaining.
- Perceives internal distress like physical pain — it is necessary not only to relieve the pain but also to treat its cause.
This perception allows for the emergence of personal new formations — the necessary consequence of successfully overcoming crises. These new formations (e.g., wisdom, self-acceptance, having a certain life philosophy) are needed so that a person is satisfied with the quality of their life, considers themselves happy, and has a positive emotional background.
Maturity, as the main developmental task during this period, is achieved precisely through the successful overcoming of psychosocial crises.