★ Overwhelming praise from readers, with an average rating of 4.4/5 on Amazon.com (1,272 stars) and an average rating of 4.2/5 on Goodreads (2,590 stars) ★
★ A psychological compass to help you turn your midlife crisis into a life opportunity ★
★ Broad insights covering various fields such as psychology, literature, history, religion, and mythology ★

Lost sense of direction, strained relationships, empty hearts…
Who have I been living for all this time?
The Psychology of Self-Discovery: Transforming Anxiety and Emptiness into Meaning and Fullness

People believe that if they go to a good school, get a high-paying job, get married, have children, buy a nice car, buy a house, and build a solid career, they will be happy.
I believe that the anxiety in my heart will subside and a peaceful and stable day will come.
That's why everyone is working hard towards that goal.
But then, halfway through life, you're suddenly struck by an inexplicable sense of unease, a feeling of "something's wrong," a deep-seated doubt that makes you wonder, "Is this really the life I wanted?" or a sharp realization that makes you want to slap your forehead and say, "Is this really all there is? Is this my life?"


Carl Gustav Jung said, “When you turn forty, there is an earthquake in your heart.”
The midlife crisis, where you feel confused about where to go, your relationships with your partner or family seem to be on the rocks, and you're not sure if what you've been doing is really what you want, is expressed as an 'earthquake in your heart.'
There is a book that provides deep insight to modern people who seem to live stable lives on the outside, but are deeply anxious and empty on the inside.
This is 『Jungian Psychology for Those in Their Forties』 by James Hollis, the world's leading Jungian authority and psychoanalyst.
James Hollis interprets this crisis that comes around forty as an invitation to find your true self, and offers a profound and persuasive way to find a meaningful and fulfilling life.

If you're doubting the choices you've made so far and feeling like you've reached a dead end, I urge you to stop ignoring this inner signal telling you to become your true self.
By following James Hollis's guidance, you will be able to free yourself from the expectations of others, sociocultural pressures, and even traumas and complexes you were unaware of, and finally discover your true self.
Life after forty is divided into two.
Either live as you have always lived, falling into a depressed sleep, or discover your true self and choose to grow once again, even if you are anxious and afraid.
Only when you respond to this great invitation from deep within you can you embark on the path of healing and encounter your greater true self.

The poet Dante Alighieri found himself lost in a dark forest midway through his life and began his famous journey down to the underworld.
Likewise, we live with the best of intentions, but we still often find ourselves lost in the dark forest.
No matter how well-intentioned, how well-informed, how thoroughly planned, how fervently prayed, or how well guided by others, confusion, disorientation, helplessness, depression, disappointment in oneself and others, and the failure of plans and strategies that had seemed to work so far are inevitable.
--- From the "Introductory Note"

Paradoxically, this calling requires us to begin to take ourselves more seriously than we have before.
This kind of self-reflection cannot take place without extreme honesty.
Most people reach this point after living with a narrow view of themselves.
As Jung once humorously said, we walk in shoes that are too small for us.
By holding onto old defensive strategies and unconsciously repeating choices tied to our past history, we become enemies that hinder our own growth, the expansion of our souls, by having an overly narrow view of our life's journey.
--- From "Chapter 1: Awakening Around Forty"

Therefore, the tragic sense of life is not pathological but rather heroic.
Because it is a call to live consciously, to seek change, and to move forward with humility in the face of nature and our own divided minds.
Those who ignore this call will suffer the wrath of the gods and the division of the soul that we call neurosis.
The tragic sense of life is a constant invitation to move toward consciousness, and accepting it paradoxically allows us to regain our place in the larger picture.
The traditional warning to walk humbly and fear the gods still holds true for all of us.
--- From "Chapter 2: How Did We Become Such People?"

There are many modern versions of this contract we assume we have with the universe.
For some, this assumption begins with compliant interactions with parents and later extends to social institutions.
Social institutions publicly state rules that promise rewards for those who behave according to the rules.
(So, we expect that if we give it our all, the company won't let us go even if it restructures.) To others, this contract assumes that acting in good faith will always be rewarded in good faith.
For others, it comes in the form of the expectation that proper exercise, proper spirituality, proper diet, and proper diagnosis will protect them from cancer.
Yet, sooner or later, life brings each of us not only disappointment, but something worse: a deep disillusionment with the "contract" we had implicitly assumed and served to the best of our ability.
--- From "Chapter 3: Time to Meet Your True Self"

It's so easy to be daunted by the enormity of life, seduced by apathy, distracted by popular culture, and swept up in collective fantasies that have little to do with the soul's agenda.
Yet, we must ultimately face ourselves.
Whether you numb yourself, pretend to be busy to avoid what you really need to do, or agonize over trivial matters, the ways to rationalize your choices are endless.
Life always presents us with new moments of choice in new situations.
Only when we face this question more consciously, which has already come to us, do we begin to cross the middle path and truly grow.
--- From Chapter 4, “What Blocks Change”

Fear of loneliness and fear of growth are the major obstacles of our time.
Escaping loneliness can lead people to hang out at the mall, stay in bad relationships, abuse drugs, and, worst of all, avoid connecting with themselves.
How can you possibly build good relationships with others if you can't maintain a good relationship with yourself? Escaping from yourself means constantly feeling uncomfortable around others.
What we fear to see in ourselves, we will fear to see in others.
What you avoid dealing with within yourself, you will avoid dealing with in others.
Also, the barriers within yourself will appear as barriers in your relationships with others.
--- From “Chapter 5 Romance and Love, the Dynamics of Intimate Relationships”

If parents could unconditionally trust their children by saying things like: Our lives and the world would change so much.
“You are very precious to us.
You will always have our love and support.
You were born into this world to cultivate your own life.
Never harm others, but never stop trying to be as good as you can be.
Even when you fall and fail, you will still be loved and welcomed.
But you were born into this world to leave us.
Don't worry about things that make us happy, just forge your own destiny and move forward steadfastly." How much our history will change!
--- From "Chapter 6: The Meaning of Family as Seen Halfway Through Life"

You can choose your job, but you can't choose your calling.
Our calling chooses us.
Choosing that which has chosen us is a kind of liberation, and as a byproduct of this liberation, you will feel that you have found the right job and that harmony will arise within you.
Even if it creates a world of conflict, goes unrecognized, and costs you a great deal personally.
--- From “Chapter 7 Between Occupation and Calling”

The greatest gift of depth psychology is that it gives us back the possibility of engaging in a deep conversation with this mystery.
Being a psychological being doesn't mean you need therapy, but it does mean asking more fundamentally than ever before what's going on beneath the surface.
We are all too easily seduced by surfaces.
But the energy that moves the universe, that moves the great myths, that moves our ancestors, is still moving within you.
--- "Chapter 8: The Age When Everyone Was Sick, But No One Was Sick, Page 264"

Even though we don't order dreams, we receive visits from these other worlds on average six times a night.
Of course, this other world is also our world.
Such a massive expenditure of energy is never random, nor is it without purpose.
Nature does not waste energy.
Paying attention to the point where the inner and outer worlds meet is a central task of depth psychology, the mystical traditions of world religions, and the daily task of all of us.
From this juncture, creative energy arises, revelations emerge, and each of us enters a greater and more developed spiritual world.
--- From “Chapter 9: Recovering Mature Spirituality in a Material Age”

The only antidote to this guilt that paralyzes people is determination.
It is, so to speak, a decision to take the risk of becoming who we are meant to be by choosing to expand ourselves rather than to be bound by the past.
The guilt that renders the person helpless in this way is always connected to his past.
Therefore, we cannot move forward into the future without overcoming the past.
There is no future without moving forward with more honest actions in the face of guilt.
--- From "Chapter 10: The Swamp of the Mind"

So here you are in this mysterious now.
Your history fades away like the sound of a hunter's horn blowing in the wind, and your future rushes toward you like the next season.
This is the moment, the only moment that exists.
Within that moment, creation takes place and consciousness creates change.
The highest achievement of consciousness will not be to selfishly repeat one's own glory or to pursue an agenda of regressive reinforcement in the face of this vast and threatening universe that is our human home.
Rather, it would be the ability to acknowledge and serve that we are called to witness and serve something much greater.
There is space within your vessel to receive a second, greater life that transcends time.

--- From “Chapter 11 How to Heal the Soul”