This book represents both an extension of the authors' prior work on adult development1 and an extension of the studies of the ongoing development of the psyche throughout life by Vaillant,2 Levinson, et al.,3 and Gould.4 Nemiroff and Colarusso stress the theme that the crucial issues of childhood continue to be expressed in new phase-specific ways during adult life. The classic example of a new phase-specific issue in adulthood is the need of the older adult to accept the inevitability of death.

The authors look askance at attempts to explain adult behavioral manifestations exclusively in terms of the events of childhood. To them, the adult past must also be taken into consideration. The concepts of fixation and developmental arrest are felt by them to be applicable to adult events as well as to childhood ones, inasmuch