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Eda Goldstein's latest book addresses the assessment and treatment of individuals who encounter significant difficulties in dealing with the inevitable changes and losses encountered during midlife. She uses the theoretical framework of self psychology to explain how being faced with events that entail change or loss can trigger a crisis in individuals with major areas of narcissistic vulnerability. The book is intended to lead clinicians to a deeper understanding of the difficulties experienced by these vulnerable individuals and to offer specific treatment recommendations, based on self-psychology principles. Dr. Goldstein succeeds admirably in accomplishing both objectives. In providing a guide to treating midlife clients that is both theoretical and developmentally based, When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues fills a gap in the treatment literature that is particularly relevant, given the size of the Baby Boom population.
True to her identification as a social worker, the author's overview in Chapter 1 stresses the importance of both internal and societal factors in triggering an individual's sense of vulnerability. The attacks on the World Trade Center figure in several of her case examples. Goldstein states that there is no consensus as to the boundaries of the term midlife; at various times individuals from their thirties through their seventies have been included in this category. The vast majority of cases throughout the book, however, describe clients in their forties and fifties. Goldstein acknowledges that midlife can be stressful, at least temporarily, for most individuals. A key premise of her book, however, is her identification of two groups for whom the demands of and adaptations to the process of aging may cause major distress: perfectionistic, controlling individuals whose bubbles burst when events of midlife threaten their usual functioning and underperforming individuals who increasingly feel regretful and demoralized as