Midlife, reconsidered

Brandeis Stories

Midlife, reconsidered

By David Levin
June 16, 2026

For decades, "midlife" has been almost synonymous with "crisis:" the existential tailspin, the expensive new red sports car, the sneaking sense that everything good is already behind you. It's a well-trod cliché, and according to Margie Lachman, it's also a complete myth. Lachman, a Professor of Psychology and director of Brandeis' Lifespan Lab, has been studying midlife for more than 30 years. Her new book, "Primetime: A New Vision for Midlife," translates a career's worth of data and research for a lay audience, and makes the case that midlife isn't so much a cliff's edge as a launching point for the second half of life. We sat down with her to talk about her book and its intended impact.

So when exactly is midlife? How do you define it?

Here's what might surprise you: midlife isn't really about the number of candles on your birthday cake. Yes, we're talking about the 40s and 50s, but what really defines midlife are the central roles you play. It's the sandwich generation phenomenon - when you're caring for your kids while also helping your aging parents. You're literally in the middle, pulled in both directions. That's the essence of midlife. It's less about chronological age and more about your unique and often challenging position.

You call the midlife crisis a myth - why has the idea stuck around so long?

The term goes back to a psychoanalyst named Elliott Jacques, who in 1965 described patients in their 40s feeling like their best years were behind them. Then Gail Sheehy's book "Passages" picked it up in the 1970s and made it mainstream, and Hollywood ran with it from there. The little red sports car became the shorthand, and it calcified.

My colleagues and I thought that this couldn't be all there is. When we surveyed a representative sample of Americans, about 20 to 25 percent said they'd had a midlife crisis - but when we asked what they meant, most were describing events like job loss, divorce or a health scare. Those are things that can happen at any age, but if they happen when you're 45, you call it a midlife crisis. The label does a lot of work that the data doesn't support.

As an academic, why write a book about midlife for a general audience?

Most of my work reaches a small audience of academics. That's fine - I'm happy when they read it. But I've always believed this research is genuinely relevant to people's lives in ways that a journal article can never reach. What I want people to understand is that midlife has a bad reputation, and the science doesn't support it. If I can give readers - especially people in their 40s and 50s who are heads-down, stressed out, running on autopilot - permission to stop and recognize that this is a remarkable period of life, with plenty of time still ahead, that's the whole point. I spent 30 years studying this. I may as well try to make it useful.

What are some of the lessons you want readers to learn from your research?

The big one is that midlife is prime-time. That's not just the title of my book - it's the fundamental reframe I want people to embrace. We've been sold this narrative of midlife as decline, crisis, the beginning of the end, but the data tells a completely different story. This is your moment! You've got experience, you've got clarity about what matters, you've got skills you've honed for decades, and you've still got time. Lots of it. If you view midlife through the lens of opportunity rather than loss, everything changes for the better.

You write about the importance of doing a "life review" in middle age. What is that, and how does it help?

The life review is just a structured way to reflect on what you've accomplished, make peace with the past, and think about what you want to in the time you have left. It was originally developed for older adults nearing the end of life, but I thought: why wait? Midlife is a natural inflection point. You look back and you look forward, and you still have enough runway to actually do something with what you learn.

I like to use an analogy from teaching. At midterm, you assess what's working and what isn't - and you still have half the semester left to change course. Midlife is the same. People who pause, even briefly, for that sort of reflection tend to navigate their second half of life with more intention.

Why do you think it's important to change the way we think about midlife as a culture?

Our research on midlife shows your mindset and beliefs have real, measurable effects on your physical health, not just your mood. We're used to thinking about physical health as something that happens to you. But we've found that how you think about aging, what you believe you're capable of, your sense of control in midlife - these all affect cognitive functioning, physical outcomes, psychological health.

Luckly, your mindset isn't fixed. If your sense of control is low, you can change it by trying new things. You can also give yourself permission to postpone instead of abandon life goals. I call this the "shelve it" approach: Maybe you've always wanted to learn Italian or hike the Appalachian Trail, but right now you're drowning in responsibilities. That's okay! Put it on the back burner. The key is you're not giving up on it forever - you're strategically timing it for when you have the bandwidth to do it. That mindset reduces the psychological burden of "I should be doing this" and replaces it with "I will do it, just not now," which is incredibly liberating.