Translator's Note
Author's Note

Part 1.
Perspectives on Adult Development
Chapter 1.
Life Cycle and Its Seasons
Chapter 2.
Era: The Anatomy of the Life Cycle
Chapter 3.
Developmental Periods: The Evolutionary Process of Life Structure
Chapter 4.
four men

Part 2.
Beginner stage in early adulthood
Chapter 5.
Beginner Stage: Early Adult Transition, Adult Initiation, and 30s Transition
Chapter 6.
Key developmental tasks at the beginner level
Chapter 7.
The Life of James Tracy: Corporate Executive (1)
Chapter 8.
William Paulson's Life: The Worker

Part 3.
ballast
Chapter 9.
Stabilization: Shaping the Structure of Second Adult Life
Chapter 10.
Five developmental series of the stable period
Chapter 11.
The Life of James Tracy (2)
Chapter 12.
Paul Namson's Life: The Novelist

Part 4.
Midlife transition and middle age entry
Chapter 13.
midlife transition
Chapter 14.
Individuation in Midlife: Young/Old, the Major Polarity
Chapter 15.
Individuation in Midlife: Other Polarities
Chapter 16.
Midlife Transition: Restructuring Your Life
Chapter 17.
The Life of John Barnes: Biologist
Chapter 18.
Middle-aged introductory period
Chapter 19.
The Life of James Tracy (3)

Part 5.
conclusion
Chapter 20.
Developmental challenges and possibilities of adulthood

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* The most ambitious account of the adult life cycle, based on more than a decade of research ─ Newsweek
* A pioneering and radical 'adult development theory' equivalent to the 'Kinsey Sex Report' ─ 『Chicago Tribune』
* Very valuable research.
Levinson created a completely new psychosocial theory of life.
It is a groundbreaking conceptual development based on empirical research since Erikson.
By knowing what is in this book, we can live with greater awareness and more intelligence.
─ Peter M.
Newton, American Scientist

This book is a classic in the theory of adult development that deeply analyzes the life journeys and content of 40 men in various occupations, from day laborers to corporate executives, through 10 years of follow-up interviews.
Daniel Levinson, an American psychologist famous for being the founder of the theory of positive adult development and the proponent of the 'Four Seasons of Life Theory', conducted a long-term longitudinal study with scholars and experts from various schools of psychology, including Freudian, Jungian, and Eriksonian, and produced groundbreaking results.
The authors see life as moving through cycles like the four seasons, and that the process of transitioning from one season to another involves the pain of change and growth.
In fact, we ask ourselves countless questions to understand and cope with the suffering that comes at every crossroads in life.
"Why and how did I end up here? What is my potential for growth? Where should I go from here?" This book seeks answers to these questions through the various life journeys of adult men.
Levinson sees the process of adult development as a process in which the structure of life, or the blueprint of life, evolves through a series of orderly periods and periods of change and stability.
Each era is divided into a series of periods, each with its own unique qualitative characteristics and developmental tasks, and these periods are further divided into 'transition periods' and 'stability periods'.
In periods of transition, we seek change and growth by correcting the flaws in our lives amidst chaos and conflict, and in periods of stability, we create new life structures and develop based on them.
In this way, the transition to adulthood is achieved through these two processes alternating.
Meanwhile, in the structure of life at a certain time, not only the self but also the world surrounding the self intervenes.
Soon, the structure of life is a collaboration between the self and the world.
When I try to unfold my self, the world can either support me or restrict me.
And the ego either overcomes it or succumbs to it.
This arduous struggle between self and the world is particularly well depicted in the life journeys of the four men in the book.
The stories of the four characters featured in this book demonstrate the common developmental principles of adult males, while also vividly depicting the life journeys of each adult male, each with unique characteristics based on their different environments and personalities.
The important relationships and self-development processes that occupy the center of the adult lives of these individuals, who live their own lives as corporate executives, workers, novelists, biologists, etc., are discussed in depth throughout the book, divided into 'Early Adulthood (Part 2),' 'Stabilization (Part 3),' and 'Middle Age Transition and Entry into Middle Age (Part 4).'
The life structure we design in our twenties can never be perfect.
Soon the flaws will be revealed and you will be left asking yourself again and again, “What is the life I truly want?”
In this way, we grow and develop while constantly correcting the flaws in our lives on the wheel of change and stability.
The life journeys of these four men, who bravely navigate the four seasons of life, sometimes with the joy and elation of achievement, and sometimes with the frustration and loss of failure, will serve as a foundation for mature wisdom that will enable readers to reflect on their own lives and plan their future lives more wisely.