Dr Dieckmann is a Jungian analyst whose book is intended for the intelligent layman. In it he gives a lucid account of the special problems encountered during the middle years, exacerbated as they are by the expectations of success and prestige characteristic of present-day society. He stresses that this particular age-group tends to be neglected by the existing helping agencies, and he quotes case material to illustrate how despair, resignation, one-sidedness, broken marriages and failures of all kinds can be transformed and resolved by therapeutic intervention.