Carl Jung's Advice for People Who Feel Lost in Their 30s

It's your birthday. Late. Everyone's gone home, and there's one cupcake left on the kitchen counter with two number candles in it: a 3 and a 5. While they burn, you open your phone, and the question you've been avoiding all evening finally says itself: am I behind? In 1913, Carl Jung was 38 and had everything on that kind of list. Then it all came loose. This film walks through what he said about the "afternoon of life", what the research says about why your thirties and forties can feel like sliding (the same U-shape shows up in 132 countries, and even in great apes), and four things you can do with the list you wrote at 22. The question from the film: What is this all for? The four tools: 1. Read the list. 2. Ask the afternoon question. 3. Pick up the stones. 4. Measure against your own curve. "Life begins at forty" isn't Jung's line. It's the title of a 1932 book by Walter Pitkin. And the U-curve is an average, not a forecast: plenty of people dip at a different age, or not at all. Previous film: Aristotle's Advice for People Who Miss Their Old Friends →    • Aristotle's Advice for People Who Miss The...   Chapters 0:00 The cupcake 1:18 Jung at 38 2:47 The morning list 4:13 The dip is real 6:52 Why it feels like falling behind 8:55 The afternoon of life 10:38 The line he never said 11:15 What he did when it turned 14:03 A note 14:34 Tool one: read the list 15:27 Tool two: ask the afternoon question 16:15 Tool three: pick up the stones 17:07 Tool four: measure against your own curve 17:57 You'll recognise these 19:54 Where to begin 20:23 One question 20:41 Back to the kitchen Sources / further reading Jung, C. G. (1930). The Stages of Life. Collected Works, Vol. 8, trans. R. F. C. Hull. Jung, C. G., with Aniela Jaffé (1962). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Chapter: Confrontation with the Unconscious. Blanchflower, D. G. (2020). Is Happiness U-shaped Everywhere? Age and Subjective Well-being in 132 Countries. NBER Working Paper 26641. Weiss, A., King, J. E., Inoue-Murayama, M., Matsuzawa, T., & Oswald, A. J. (2012). Evidence for a midlife crisis in great apes consistent with the U-shape in human well-being. PNAS, 109(49), 19949-19952. Schwandt, H. (2016). Unmet aspirations as an explanation for the age U-shape in wellbeing. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 122, 75-87. Galambos, N. L., Krahn, H. J., Johnson, M. D., & Lachman, M. E. (2020). The U shape of happiness across the life course: expanding the discussion. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(4). Pitkin, W. B. (1932). Life Begins at Forty. McGraw-Hill. Feeling lost is not the same as depression. If you've felt low nearly every day for weeks, if you've stopped enjoying things you used to love, or if it's starting to affect your sleep, your work, or how you see yourself, please talk to someone: a doctor, a counsellor, or one person you trust. #carljung #midlife #intoshunya ——— Shunya - the questions worth sitting with. New video every week. #consciousness #philosophy #meditation ——— Shunya - the questions worth sitting with. New video every week. #consciousness #philosophy #meditation