Let the reader be prepared for some strong reactions to this article. This is Death of a Salesman applied to the psychoanalyst. Written with broad and penetrating vision, it could have come only from the author's intimate knowledge of psychoanalysts as human beings and possibly will be best received by those who have had some personal disappointing experience with the crisis of middle age. The younger analyst will probably defend himself by saying that 'this will not happen to me'. The author emphasizes that a pessimistic attitude develops in midlife that some would deny or think of as less of a threat. He does not mention physical illness or the suicide of a patient as specific things that happen and can enter into the crisis of middle age. He could have cited other warning signs that should alert the middle-aged analyst that his problems are accumulating. One of the things that analysts can constructively do is to have a second analysis.