Most Popular Books by Douglas Dunn

This dissertation is a phenomenological research study that addresses the effect the aging body has on men at midlife. The data for this research was obtained by interviewing six men between the ages of 48 and 61 years of age. These interviews provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between the psyche and the aging body. We can observe this relationship in the psychological life of the individual. I found that the data from this study produced three levels of meaning. The first level was the concrete change that occurred in the aging body. The second level was the change of psychological attitude experienced by the men interviewed. The third level was an imaginal realm of meaning. Concrete bodily changes symbolize a boundary and a limit for the future of the body, and these limits have an impact on this psychological life. Psychological attitudes influenced by the aging body were limitation, power, spirituality, mortality, relationships, deterioration, and the discovery of different parts of the self. These changes forced the individual into an attitude of greater self-awareness and self-reflection providing an opportunity for the soul to be heard through the symptom. The bodily symptoms associated with midlife are wake-up calls that penetrate to the deepest layers of the psyche. They are the voice of the soul wanting to be heard. When examined in detail, the interviews provided a rich source for an imaginal background of meaning. I found that underneath the struggle these men engaged in at midlife existed a hidden conflict. This conflict was between their unconscious concept of a hero and the reality of their own bodies. As their bodies began to deteriorate, they could no longer identify with the hero archetype. This resulted in an attempt to rebuild the body into a heroic form or a sense of despair over the loss of the heroic image. The heroic myth is one of the most embedded myths of the Western world. Our culture, however, has no myth to support an aging hero. The interviews suggest an adult development and psychic growth that is a nonlinear, acausal process, not a stage-dependent progression toward a final goal. Adult development is not, then, a chronological process, but rather a psychological and spiritual process of discovery. Each man provided a unique, individual process in response to the changes in their body. These stories reflected an individually determined course of development that did not fit into a clearly defined stage.