Shared Wisdom

CRISIS

James Hollis

These paragrahs are part of 'The middle passage' book by James Hollis

When increasing pressure from within becomes less and less containable by the old strategies, a crisis of selfhood erupts. We do not know who we are, really, apart from social holes and psychic reflexes. And we do not know what to do to lessen the pressure.

Such symptoms announce the need for substantive change in a person’s life. Suffering quickens consciousness, and from new consciousness new life may follow. The task is daunting, for one must acknowledge that there is no rescue, no parent to make everything better and no way to go back to an earlier time. The Self has sought growth by exhausting the tired strategies of the ego.

The ego structure which one worked so hard to create is now revealed to be petty, frightened and out of answers. At midlife the Self maneuvers the ego assemblage into crisis in order to bring about a correction of course.