A 37-year-old, 45-year-old, And 88-year-old On Their Quarter- And Midlife Crises

Paramount/YouTubeStarting a steampunk band, taking up quad biking or deciding to jump out of a plane—ever since Canadian psychoanalyst Elliott Jaques coined the term “midlife crisis” in 1965, more and more 40-something men have claimed to have had one. Despite the fact that scientists and economists believe there’s little evidence behind it, a quick Google search will deliver hundreds — if not thousands — of think pieces, blog entries and pleading Reddit comment threads about the phenomenon (the same for the quarter-life crisis). Similarly, pop culture pretty much only offers a romanticized version of mid- and quarter-life crises. Three quick examples: Lost in Translation, American Beauty and Fight Club — each of whose plots largely revolve around middle-aged men indulging their vices to combat existential woe. But how do life crises really play out, and why do we still care so much about them? MEL recently asked four men of different ages about their life crises, and what they think it tells us about the mid- and quarter-life crisis in 2017. Umar*, 37 I graduated at the top of my class at the London Business School back in the 1990s.