Research Paper on:
Primary Themes in Daniel J. Levinson's The Seasons of a Man's Life

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and works exist that address childhood development and the particulars of problems of adult life, no works truly seem to theorize about the adult years of an individual. As Levinson  states, "Great masses of data have been accumulated about specific features of adult life/ There are statistics on marriage and divorce, health and illness, life expectancy, occupation and income" as  well as studies on "retirement and the empty nest syndrome" (3). But, while there is extensive research on many specific realities of adult life, we have a very "limited understanding  of its nature. The basic developmental principles of adult life remain an enigma" (Levinson 3). One can also note that a great deal of information pertaining to womens changes  in life (menopause etc.) but very little has been written about the adult life of men. In general much of the theories of the past and the present seem to  deal with men as never changing from the time adulthood hits to the time of death. Levinson, however, has taken the world of the adult male and examined it from  many different angles, providing us with perhaps the very first look at the development of men throughout their adult years. In the following paper we examine Levinsons book and evaluate  its merit as a work book for understanding the adult world of men. The Seasons of a Mans Life As mentioned, there exists very little, if, honestly, anything  in the way of serious study concerning the adult years of a mans life. While many of us understand the term "mid-life crisis," we do not assume that men go  through any particular level of development as they age. clearly these realities appear to bother Levinson as he indicates that even the greatest of minds in terms of developmental study,