The crisis of personality in psychology has been considered for a long time, but they have not yet become the subject of deep and lengthy research. As a result, in psychology there are different views on the crisis inherent in the life path of the individual. Psychological science presents various approaches and views on understanding the essence of crisis phenomena and their typology.

In our opinion, all personality crises that occur on her life path can be divided into:

• crises of mental development;
• age crises;
• crisis of a neurotic nature;
• professional crisis;
• critical-semantic crisis;
• life crises.

According to the strength of the impact on the psyche, three stages of the crisis can be conditionally distinguished: storey, in-depth and deep.

Storey crisis manifests itself in the growth of anxiety, anxiety, irritation, incontinence, dissatisfaction with oneself, one's actions, plans, relationships with others. One feels confusion, tension of expectation of the ill-fated development of events. Indifference to everything that worried arises, once stable interests are lost, their spectrum narrows. Apathy directly affects the decline in performance.

Deep crisis manifests itself in a sense of powerlessness in front of what is happening. Everything falls out of hand, the ability to control events is lost. Everything around is only annoying, especially the closest ones, who must endure outbursts of anger and remorse. Activities that have always been easy now require significant effort. A person gets tired, becomes sad, perceives the world pessimistically. Sleep and appetite are disturbed in it. Depending on the individual characteristics, aggressive reactions may occur. All these symptoms complicate contacts, narrow the circle of communication, and contribute to the growth of alienation. Their own future causes more and more serious concerns, a person does not know how to live on.

deep crisis accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, disappointment in oneself and others. A person is acutely experiencing his own inferiority, worthlessness, uselessness. Falls into a state of despair, which is replaced by apathy or a sense of hostility. Behavior loses flexibility, becomes rigid. A person is no longer able to spontaneously express his feelings, to be spontaneous and creative. She goes deep into herself, isolates herself from relatives and friends. Everything that surrounds her seems unreal, unreal. The meaning of existence is lost.

Each crisis is always lack of freedom, it necessarily becomes a temporary obstacle in development, self-realization. Sometimes a crisis contains a real threat to existence, a full-fledged being. The habitual way of life falls apart, it becomes necessary to enter a different reality, to search for a new strategy for solving a dramatic collision.

Crisis behavior is striking in its straightforwardness. A person loses the ability to see shades, everything becomes black and white, contrasting for her, the world itself seems very dangerous, chaotic, unconvincing. The surrounding reality for a person is destroyed. If a closest friend expresses doubts about the behavior of a person who is in crisis, she can instantly cross out her long-term relationship with him, accepting his hesitation as a betrayal.

In a dangerous world, you need to be very careful - the one who has fallen into dramatic life circumstances believes, and therefore he becomes a mythologist, trying to interpret every little thing as a sign portending further events. Faith is growing in fate, God, karma, cosmic intelligence. The inability to take responsibility pushes one to shift the burden onto someone else - smarter, more powerful, incomprehensible and mysterious.

The attitude to time changes in such a way that a person ceases to connect the past and the future with each other. The fact that the experienced seems unnecessary, the former plans seem unrealistic, impracticable. The flow of time becomes uncontrollable, excites anxiety, depresses. It becomes almost impossible to live in the present, because a person is not able to adequately perceive what surrounds her. The inner world is increasingly moving away from the outer, and a person remains a prisoner of his own illusions, neurotic exaggerations, paranoid thoughts.

Summarizing the symptoms of a crisis state, the following indicators can be distinguished: 1) a decrease in the adaptability of behavior; 2) drop in the level of self-acceptance; 3) primitivization of self-regulation.

The cause of crises is critical events. Critical events are turning points in an individual's life, accompanied by significant emotional experiences. All professionally conditioned critical events can be divided into three groups:

• normative, conditioned by the logic of a person's professional development and life: graduating from school, entering professional educational institutions, starting a family, finding a job, etc.;
• non-normative, which are characterized by random or unfavorable circumstances: failure during entry into a professional school, forced dismissal from work, family breakdown, etc.;
• extraordinary (extraordinary), which occur as a result of the manifestation of strong emotional and volitional efforts of the individual: independent termination of training, innovative initiative, change of profession, voluntary assumption of responsibility, etc.

Critical events can have two modalities: positive and negative. The modality of events is determined by the ways of emotional response to changes in life, professional circumstances and difficulties. And the event itself for two people can have the opposite modality. Events of positive modality will be called epic, negative - incidents.

Unfavorable circumstances are familiar to everyone, there are too many social stresses today. However, different individuals experience the same extreme situations in different ways. Even the person himself, who last year perceived any trouble quite easily, can now experience such a collision as a personal disaster. The intensity of social cataclysms for each person is different - depending on experience, hardened against trials, a general pessimistic and optimistic outlook on life.

Neither wars, nor repressions, nor ecological or economic crises can be the decisive impulses that provoke the emergence of a life crisis. At the same time, events that are almost imperceptible from the outside - betrayal of a loved one, slander, misunderstanding - can push for a life knockout. The human world combines the external and internal into an inseparable integrity, which is why it is impossible to determine whether the causes of each crisis should be sought inside or outside.

In everyday life, situations with an uncertain future also occur. A person who suffers does not foresee a real end to difficult, painful circumstances. A dangerous disease that falls on a person or her relatives is also a test with an uncertain future. Divorce, family breakup cannot be perceived as a narrowing of the perspective, the inability to predict the future existence. The leading feeling is the unreality of what is happening, the disconnection of the present from the past and future. And almost every person experiences the death of relatives - those without whom, in fact, life loses its colors, is devastated.

Life has certain stages, which are always different from each other. Each age, with its beginning and end, eventually passes. A person is constantly progressing and, like a mollusk, breaks the shell. The state, which lasts from the time of the break of the shell to the formation of a new one, is experienced as a crisis.

Twenties are said to be trying to find their own business; thirty-year-olds strive to reach certain heights in the chosen field of life; forty-year-olds want to get as far ahead as possible; fifty-year-olds - to gain a foothold in their positions; sixty-year-olds - to maneuver in order to adequately give way.

The described crisis reveals a line, a watershed between age periods - childhood and adolescence, youth and adulthood. Such a crisis is a progressive phenomenon, without which it is impossible to imagine the development of the individual. A person and his environment do not necessarily perceive it painfully, although this also often happens.

It is known that a developmental crisis (normal or progressive crisis) never occurs without tension, anxiety, depressive symptoms. Temporarily, these unpleasant emotional correlates of the crisis state are intensified, paving the way for a new, more stable, more harmonious stage. Such a crisis, referring to the studies of E. Erickson, is also called regulatory, that is, one that exists within the normal range. Emphasizing the short, non-pathological nature of the age-related disorders that accompany this crisis, D. Offer and D. Oldgham designate it as “substitution”.

In the psychological literature, you can find many terms that characterize people who grow up almost conflict-free. These are both “emotionally healthy” and “competent”, that is, boys and girls who have high academic performance, communicate quite well with peers, participate in social interaction, and adhere to generally accepted norms. Indeed, individual variants of the course of the crisis largely depend on innate constitutional features and the nervous system.

Social conditions also have a direct impact on the features of the age crisis. In particular, in the well-known scientific works of M. Mead, on the basis of empirical material, it is proved that even adolescence, which the researcher studied on the islands of Samoa and New Guinea, can be crisis-free. The relationship between adolescents and adults is there in such a way that no problems arise. M. Mead believes that an economically developed society creates a number of conditions that provoke age-related crises and complicate socialization. This is the rapid pace of social change, and the contradictions between the family and society, and the lack of the necessary system of initiations.

The main symptom of approach normal crisis- this is mental saturation with leading activity. For example, in preschool age, such an activity is a game, in primary school age - learning, in adolescence - intimate-personal communication. It is the leading activity that provides opportunities for further development, and if the age determinant is exhausted, if favorable conditions for growth are no longer created within the existing leading activity, the crisis becomes inevitable.

Relatively abnormal (regressive) crisis, then it is not connected with the completion of a certain stage of mental development. It arises in difficult life circumstances, when a person has to experience events that suddenly change her fate. Troubles in professional activities, communication, family relationships, especially if they coincide with a period of general dissatisfaction with one's own life, a person can perceive as a catastrophe, which causes stable emotional disorders. Even a minor nuisance becomes an impetus for the deployment of a crisis state. Therefore, it is so important to know the level of the so-called "biographical stress" in the individual, the number of negative events that occurred during the last month, year, etc.

Difficult life situations can be defined as those that require a person to act that exceeds her adaptive capabilities and resources. The person and the event are very closely linked, so the individual life history directly affects the perception of dramatic collisions. Eternal troubles (the term of G. Lazarus) can also influence the occurrence of an abnormal crisis if there are too many of them, and the person is already in a depressed state.

An anormative crisis destroys not only activities that are no longer leading. It can also jam up activities in relation to the immature, not fully mastered. In general, the negative phase of such a crisis, when the process of destruction of the old, obsolete, can be quite long, which prevents the emergence of constructive transformations.

Crises of mental development. In domestic psychology, great importance was attached to the study of crises of mental development. A study of the works of domestic psychologists shows that different terms are used in the study of that same psychological phenomenon. The concepts of "age crises" and "crises of mental development" are used as synonyms. To explain the legitimacy of our position, consider the factors that initiate the crisis.

In a generalizing article by K.M. Polivanova about crises in the mental development of children, it has been convincingly proved that the leading factors in childhood crises are a change in the social situation of development, a restructuring of the system of relationships with adults and the outside world, as well as a change in the leading activity.

Crisis phenomena develop in certain relatively short periods. But they are not initiated by age. Age is only a background against which the crisis manifests itself, the main thing is restructuring, changes in the social situation and leading activities. And of course, crises of mental development are not limited to the period of childhood. The social situation of development and leading activity also change beyond childhood.

So, crises of mental development are a transition from one stage of development to another, which is characterized by a change in the social situation, a change in the leading activity and the emergence of psychological neoplasms.

From the age of 14-16, a change in the leading activity and social situation further initiates the emergence of crises of mental development. Since the leading activity of an adult becomes educational, professional and professional, it is justified to call these cardinal changes crises of the professional development of the individual. The decisive factor in the emergence of these crises belongs to the change and restructuring of the leading activity. A variety of professional crises are creative crises caused by creative failure, lack of significant achievements, professional helplessness. These crises are extremely difficult for representatives of creative professions: writers, directors, actors, architects, inventors, etc.

age crises. It is legitimate to consider age-related changes in a person, generated by biological development, as an independent factor that determines age-related crises. These crises refer to the normative processes necessary for the normal progressive process of personal development.

In psychology, the crisis of childhood has been studied in detail. Usually, a crisis of the first year of life, a crisis of 3 years, a crisis of 6-7 years and an adolescent crisis of 10-12 years are distinguished (L.I. Bozhovich, L.S. Vygotsky, T.V. Dragunova, D.B. Elkonin, etc.) . The form, duration and severity of experiencing crises differ markedly depending on the individual typological characteristics of the child, social conditions, the characteristics of upbringing in the family and the pedagogical system as a whole.

Childhood crises arise during the transition of children to a new age level and they are associated with the resolution of acute contradictions between the features of relationships that have developed in them with others, as well as with age-old physical and psychological capabilities and aspirations. Negativism, stubbornness, capriciousness, a state of increased conflict are characteristic behavioral reactions of children during a crisis.

E. Erickson put forward the postulate that each age stage has its own point of tension - a crisis generated by the conflict in the development of the "I"-personality. A person is faced with the problem of matching the internal and external conditions of existence. When certain personality traits mature in her, she faces new challenges that life puts before her as a person of a certain age. “Each successive stage ... is a potential crisis resulting from a radical change in perspective. The word "crisis" ... was taken in the context of ideas about development in order to highlight not the threat of a catastrophe, but the moment of change, a critical period of increased vulnerability and increased potentialities.

E. Erickson divided the life path into eight stages. According to the identified age stages, he substantiated the main crises of psycho-social development (Fig. 41.1).

	Psychosocial development	Strong aspect of personality
	Basic faith and hope against basic hopelessness (trust - distrust).
Early childhood	Self-reliance against feelings of guilt and fear of condemnation (self-reliance - shame, doubt)	Strength of will
Game age	Personal initiative against feelings of guilt and fear of condemnation (initiative - guilt)	purposefulness
Junior school age	Entrepreneurship vs. feelings of inferiority (industriousness - feelings of inferiority)	Competence
Adolescence - early youth	Identity versus confusion of identity (its identity is role confusion)	Loyalty
	Intimacy versus isolation (Intimacy is isolation)
Adulthood	Performance versus stagnation, self-indulgence (performance is stagnation)
Old age (65 years-death)	Integrity, universality versus despair (its integration is despair)	Wisdom

Fig.41.1. Stages of psycho-social development (according to E. Erickson).

The basis for the periodization of crises of psycho-social development in E. Erikson is the concept of "identity" and "self-identity". The need to be oneself in the eyes of significant others and in one's own eyes determines the driving forces of development, and the contradictions between identity and self-identity predetermine the crisis and the direction of development at each age stage.

A crisis of a neurotic nature is predetermined by internal personal changes: the restructuring of consciousness, unconscious impressions, instincts, irrational tendencies - all that gives rise to internal conflict, inconsistency of psychological integrity. They have traditionally been the subject of study by Freudists, neophroydists, and other psychoanalytic schools.

Professional crisis. Based on the concept of the professional development of an individual, a crisis can be defined as a sharp change in the vector of its professional development. Short in time, they are most clearly manifested during the transition from one stage of professional development to another. Crises pass, as a rule, without pronounced changes in professional behavior. However, the restructuring of the semantic structures of professional consciousness, reorientation to new goals, correction and revision of the socio-professional position prepare a change in the ways of performing activities, predetermine changes in relationships with others, and sometimes - to a change in profession.

Let's take a closer look at the factors that determine the crisis of professional development. Gradual qualitative changes in the ways of performing activities can be interpreted as determinants. At the stage of primary professionalization, there comes a moment when further evolutionary development of activity, the formation of its individual style is impossible without a radical break in the normatively approved activity. A person must make a professional deed, reveal excess activity or reconcile. Excessive professional activity may occur during the transition to a new educational-qualifying or creative level of performance.

Another factor that initiates crises of professional development may be the increased social and professional activity of the individual as a result of her dissatisfaction with her social and professional educational status. Socio-psychological orientation, professional initiative, intellectual and emotional tension often lead to the search for new ways to perform professional activities, ways to improve it, as well as to a change in profession or place of work.

The factors that give rise to professional crises can be the socio-economic conditions of a person's life: the liquidation of an enterprise, job cuts, unsatisfactory wages, moving to a new place of residence, etc.

Also, the factors that cause a crisis of professional development are age-related psychophysiological changes: deterioration in health, decreased performance, weakening of mental processes, professional fatigue, intellectual helplessness, "emotional burnout" syndrome, etc.

Professional crises often arise during the entry into a new position, participation in competitions for filling a vacant position, certification and rating of specialists.

Finally, the factor of a long-term crisis phenomenon may be the complete obscurity of professional activity. Canadian psychologist Barbara Killinger in her book Workaholics, Respectable Drug Addicts notes that professionals who are obsessed with work as a means of achieving recognition and success sometimes seriously violate professional ethics, become conflicted, and show rigidity in relationships.

Professional development crises can be initiated by changes in life activity (change of residence, break in work related to caring for young children, "office romance", etc.). Crisis phenomena are often accompanied by a fuzzy awareness of the insufficient level of their competence and professional helplessness. Sometimes there are crisis phenomena in conditions of a higher level of professional competence than is necessary for the performance of normative work. As a result, there is a state of professional apathy and passivity.

L.S. Vygotsky singled out three phases of age-related crises: pre-critical, proper critical, and post-critical. In his opinion, in the first phase there is an aggravation of the contradiction between the subjective and objective components of the social situation of development; in the critical phase, this contradiction begins to manifest itself in behavior and activity; in postcritical it is solved by creating a new social situation of development.

Based on these provisions, it is possible to analyze the crisis of the professional development of the individual.

• Precritical phase turns out to be dissatisfied with the existing professional status, the content of the activity, the methods of its implementation, interpersonal relations. A person is not always clearly aware of this discontent, but she finds herself in psychological discomfort at work, irritability, dissatisfied with the organization, wages, managers, etc.
• For critical phase characteristic conscious dissatisfaction with the real professional situation. A person builds options for changing it, considers scenarios for further professional life, feels an increase in mental tension. Contradictions are aggravated, and a conflict arises, which becomes the core of crisis phenomena.

An analysis of conflict situations in crisis phenomena makes it possible to single out the following types of conflicts in the professional development of a person: a) motivational, caused by a loss of interest in studies, work, loss of professional growth prospects, disintegration of professional orientations, attitudes, positions; b) cognitively effective, determined by dissatisfaction, content and methods of implementation of educational, professional and professional activities; c) behavioral, caused by contradictions in interpersonal relations in the primary team, dissatisfaction with one's socio-professional status, position in the group, salary level, etc.

The conflict is accompanied by reflection, revision of the educational and professional situation, analysis of their capabilities and abilities.

• Conflict resolution leads to a state of crisis postcritical phase. Ways to resolve conflicts can be constructive, professionally neutral and destructive.

A constructive way out of the conflict involves increasing professional qualifications, finding new ways to perform activities, changing professional status, changing jobs and retraining. This way of overcoming crises requires a person to have above-standard professional activity, to perform actions that pave a new direction for his professional development.

A person's professionally neutral attitude towards crises will lead to professional stagnation, indifference and passivity. A person seeks to realize himself outside of professional activities: in everyday life, various hobbies, gardening, etc.

The destructive consequences of crises are moral degradation, professional apathy, drunkenness, idleness.

The transition from one stage of professional development to another also gives rise to normative crisis phenomena.

The following stages of professional development of a person are determined:

• optatsiya - the formation of professional intentions;
• vocational education and conduct;
• professional adaptation;
• primary and secondary professionalization: primary professionalization - up to 3-5 years of work, secondary professionalization - high-quality and productive performance of activities;
• craftsmanship is a highly productive, creative, innovative activity.

At the option stage, learning activities are re-evaluated: motivation changes depending on professional intentions. Education in the upper grades acquires a professionally oriented character, and in professional educational institutions it has a clear educational and professional orientation. There is every reason to believe that at the stage of option there is a change in the leading activity of educational and cognitive to educational and professional. The social situation of development is changing radically. At the same time, the collision of the desired future and the present is inevitable, the real one, which takes on the character crisis of educational and professional orientation.

Experiences of the crisis, reflection of one's capabilities predetermine the correction of professional intentions. There are also adjustments to the "I-concept", which was formed before this age.

The destructive way of resolving the crisis leads to a situational choice of vocational training or profession, falling out of the normal social sphere.

At the stage of vocational training, many pupils and students experience disappointment in the profession they receive. Dissatisfaction with individual subjects arises, doubts arise about the correctness of the professional choice, and interest in learning decreases. In the crisis of professional choice. As a rule, it is clearly manifested in the first and last years of vocational training. Except for rare exceptions, this crisis is overcome by changing educational motivation to social and professional. Every year, the professional orientation of academic disciplines increases, and this reduces dissatisfaction.

So, the crisis of revision and correction of professional choice at this stage does not reach the critical phase, when the conflict is inevitable.

After completion of training in a professional institution, the stage of professional adaptation begins. Young specialists begin independent labor activity. The professional situation of development is radically changing: a new work team, a different hierarchical system of production relations, new socio-professional values, a different social role and, of course, a fundamentally new type of leading activity.

Already choosing a profession, the young man had a certain idea of ​​the work ahead. But the discrepancy between real professional life and the idea that has been formed predetermines the crisis of professional expectations.

The experience of this crisis is expressed in dissatisfaction with the organization of labor, its content, official duties, industrial relations, working conditions and wages.

There are two options for resolving the crisis:

• constructive: intensifying professional efforts to quickly adapt and gain work experience;
• destructive: dismissal, change of specialty; inadequacy, poor quality, unproductive professional functions.

The next normative crisis of the professional development of a person occurs at the final stage of primary professionalization, after 3-5 years of work. Consciously or unconsciously, a person begins to feel the need for further professional growth, the need for a career. In the absence of prospects for professional growth, a person feels discomfort, mental tension, thoughts about a possible dismissal, a change of profession appear.

The crisis of professional growth can be temporarily compensated by various non-professional activities, leisure activities, household chores, or perhaps a cardinal decision - leaving the profession. But such a resolution of the crisis can hardly be considered productive.

Further professional development of a specialist leads him to secondary professionalization. A feature of this stage is the high-quality and high-performance performance of professional activities. Ways of its implementation have a clearly expressed individual character. A specialist becomes a professional. He is characterized by a social and professional position, stable professional self-esteem. Socio-professional values ​​and relations are radically rebuilt, the ways of performing activities are changing, which indicates the transition of a specialist to a new stage of professional development. The professional self-awareness that has been formed so far suggests alternative scenarios for a further career, and not necessarily within this profession. The individual feels the need for self-determination and self-organization. Contradictions between the desired career and its real prospects lead to the development career crisis. At the same time, the “I-concept” was seriously reviewed, and adjustments were made to the existing relationships. It can be stated that the professional situation of development is being reconstructed.

Possible scenarios for overcoming the crisis: dismissal, mastering a new specialty within the same profession, moving to a higher position.

One of the productive options for eliminating the crisis is the transition to the next stage of professional development - the stage of mastery.

For mastery stages characterized by a creative innovative level of performance of professional activities. The driving factor in the further professional development of the individual is the need for self-realization. Professional self-actualization of a person causes dissatisfaction with himself and others.

The crisis of unrealized opportunities, or, more precisely, the crisis socio-professional self-actualization, - it is a spiritual turmoil, a rebellion against oneself. A productive way out of it is innovation, invention, a fast-paced career, social and professional excess activity. Destructive options for resolving the crisis - liberation, conflicts, professional cynicism, alcoholism, the creation of a new family, depression.

The next normative crisis of professional development is due to the exit from professional life. Upon reaching a certain age limit, a person retires. The pre-retirement period for many workers is becoming a crisis. The severity of the crisis of loss of professional activity depends on the characteristics of labor activity (workers of physical work experience it more easily), marital status and health.

In addition to normative crises, professional development is accompanied by non-normative ones related to life circumstances. Events such as forced dismissal, retraining, change of residence, interruptions in work associated with the birth of a child, loss of ability to work cause strong emotional experiences and often acquire a pronounced crisis character.

Crises of professional development are expressed in a change in the pace and vector of a person's professional development. These crises are caused by:

• age-related psychophysiological changes;
• change in the socio-professional situation;
• qualitative restructuring of the ways of performing professional activities;
• total immersion in the social and professional environment;
• socio-economic conditions of life;
• service and vital events.

Crises can occur briefly, violently or gradually, without pronounced changes in professional behavior. In any case, they give rise to mental tension, dissatisfaction with the social and professional environment, with oneself.

Crises often occur without pronounced changes in professional behavior.

Critical-semantic crises due to critical circumstances of life: dramatic, and sometimes tragic events. These factors have a devastating, the catastrophic result for a person. There is a cardinal restructuring of consciousness, a review of value orientations and the meaning of life in general. These crises occur on the verge of human capabilities and are accompanied by boundless emotional experiences, they are predetermined by such abnormal events as disability, divorce, involuntary unemployment, migration, unexpected death of a loved one, imprisonment, etc.

P.O. Akhmerov, exploring the biographical crisis of personality, as factors that predetermine, calls events and the relationship between them. Depending on the relationship, he identifies such crises:

• crisis of unfulfillment - subjective negative experience of the life program;
• a crisis of emptiness - mental fatigue and experiences of lack of achievement;
• crisis of hopelessness - lack of prospects for professional growth of real plans for the future.

The author does not compare these crises with a person's age. In his opinion, they are determined by subjective experiences. In the individual life of a person, the main crises occur in different ways: emptiness + hopelessness; unfulfillment + emptiness + futility. A person experiences such combinations of crises quite hard, and the way out can be destructive, up to suicide.

Life crises. life crisis called the period during which the way of determining the processes of development, the life plan, the trajectory of the life path change. This is a long-term deep conflict about life in general, its meaning, main goals and ways to achieve them.

Along with the mentioned groups of psychological crises, there is another huge layer of crisis phenomena caused by major abrupt changes in living conditions. The determinants of these life crises are such important events as graduating from an educational institution, employment, marriage, the birth of a child, a change of residence, retirement, and other changes in a person's individual biography. These changes in socio-economic, temporal and spatial circumstances are accompanied by significant subjective difficulties, mental tension, restructuring of consciousness and behavior.

Life crises are the subject of close attention of foreign psychologists, in particular S. Buhler, B. Livehud, E. Erikson. Dividing human life into periods, stages, they pay attention to the difficulties of transition from one stage to another. At the same time, they emphasize the features of crisis phenomena in women and men, analyze the factors that initiate the crisis. Depending on the scientific orientation, some researchers see the causes of crises in the biological development of a person, pay attention to sexual changes, others attach more importance to the socialization of the individual, and others to spiritual, moral development.

Widely known in the 1980s and pp. in the United States acquired a book by the American journalist Gail Shinhi "Supposed crisis in the life of an adult" (1979). Based on a generalization of the life of the upper layers of the American middle class, she identifies four crises:

• "pulling out the roots", emancipation from parents (16 years);
• maximum achievements (23 years);
• correction of life plans (30 years);
• middle of life (37 years) - the most difficult, milestone.

After retirement, socio-psychological aging begins. It manifests itself in the weakening of intellectual processes, an increase or decrease in emotional experiences. The pace of mental activity decreases, caution to innovations appears, constant immersion in the past and orientation to previous experience. They also note a passion for moralizing and condemning the behavior of young people, opposing their generation to the generation that is coming to replace them. This is a crisis of socio-psychological adequacy.

Experiences during acute crisis conditions:

• hopelessness, aimlessness, emptiness, a sense of impasse. Against such an emotional background, a person is not able to independently cope with his problems, find ways to solve them and act;
• helplessness. A person feels that he is deprived of any opportunity to control his life. This feeling often occurs in young people who feel that others are doing everything for them, and nothing depends on them;
• a feeling of inferiority (when a person evaluates himself low, considers himself insignificant, etc.);
• feeling of loneliness (no one is interested in you, does not understand you);
• rapid change of feelings, variability of mood. Hopes quickly flicker on and off.

The crisis is exacerbated by such life circumstances: a past in a really dysfunctional family, a difficult childhood, domestic violence, unsatisfactory relationships with loved ones, loss of loved ones, loss of a job, social rejection, retirement (undesirable), serious illness, collapse of life plans, loss of ideals , problems related to religious belief. The person experiences the loss of a loved one more strongly if there was a strong emotional dependence on her or if the deceased evokes ambivalent, opposite feelings, an acute sense of guilt.

Suicidal intent can be suspected from the following signs:

• lack of interest in something;
• inability to plan one's actions in the current life situation;
• inconsistency, duality of intentions. The person expresses the desire to die and at the same time asks for help. For example, a person might say, "I really don't want to die, but I don't see any other way out."
• talking about suicide, increased interest in various aspects of suicide (cases, methods ...);
• dreams with plots of self-destruction or catastrophes;
• reasoning about the lack of meaning in life;
• letters or notes of a farewell nature, unusual ordering of affairs, making a will.

Suicidal tendencies increase during depression, especially when it is deepened and tucked away. Such signs should also be alarming: the sudden disappearance of anxiety, calm, which frightens, with a touch of “otherness”, detachment from the worries and anxieties of the surrounding life.

Increase the risk of suicide: attempts to commit suicide in the past, cases of suicide among relatives, parents; suicide or attempted suicide among acquaintances, especially friends; maximalist character traits, a tendency to uncompromising decisions and actions, division into "black and white", etc.

In suicide, to this day, there is a lot of obscurity, they were not the cause.

What is it?

In psychology, a personality crisis is called the stage of transition from quantity to quality, which occurs after the accumulation of a critical level of personality changes. Each of us changes every second: every decision made and every change in the external world is reflected in the internal world. Therefore, personality crises are normal, inevitable stages of development. Replacing the outdated reality editor.

Unfortunately, sometimes it happens that a person cannot cope with the coming changes, cannot in any way move into a new quality that his own inner world or circumstances of external life require from him. Often this is due to so-called "personality deformities" that make it difficult to reformat the internal reality editor. Then they talk about the pathological course of the crisis, and in this case, emergency help from a psychologist is required: the crisis itself is an extremely difficult period, which, in the presence of complicating circumstances, alas, can become fatal.

In psychology, there are several types of crises: situational, age-related, existential and spiritual.

Situational crises

With situational ones, everything is most clear, they have a clear objective criterion: this is when a person suddenly overtakes a complete failure on several fronts. The passage of this crisis is obvious: complaints will not help the cause, practical actions are needed, we need to get out of the crisis. You don't need to be a psychologist to think of this: "When the guns speak, the muses are silent."

The help of a psychologist sometimes becomes necessary after the crisis situation has passed, in order to integrate the experience gained - in other words, in order to live normally, having learned that "this happens too." This becomes especially difficult when the experience goes beyond the normal. In this case, a person often “destroys the whole world”, and here the help of a psychologist is simply necessary.

Age crises

Age crises, like situational ones, have objective causes. For the most part, they are determined by age, corresponding physiological changes and changes in social roles. Age crises include childhood (there are many), adolescence, entry into adulthood, middle age and aging.

Of all of them, only the midlife crisis is not accompanied by pronounced hormonal changes and is rather indirectly associated with a change in social roles. Therefore, there is definitely something existential in it, although formally it is not existential.

existential crises

With existential ones, unlike the previous ones, not everything is so clear: they have no objective reasons, they do not happen to everyone, although those existential givens that serve as their topics concern everyone:
1. Death
2. Freedom
3. Insulation
4. Meaninglessness of life.

These four existential givens can plunge a person into the abyss of crisis at any age. Such problems are fundamentally unsolvable at an objective level - that's why they are called existential, because we all have to live with it. Nevertheless, the awareness of such a reality in its entirety often takes a person to a new level, as it were. Speaking in the rough language of the psychological protocol, the maturity of the psychological defenses used increases, which has a beneficial effect not only on understanding these final givens themselves, but also on the general standard of living.

spiritual crisis

Unlike the previous ones, clearly classified and described in detail in the literature, with a spiritual crisis, strictly speaking, nothing is clear at all. There is no generally accepted concept and evidence base. This is due to the fact that it is in a spiritual crisis that a person encounters on his own experience a feeling of non-duality, unity and the absence of opposites, the verbal descriptions of which in our dual world cannot but be contradictory and vague.

A spiritual crisis is often the result of intensive spiritual practices, when a person does not have enough opportunities to integrate the experience gained into everyday life. But this contact with non-duality is not so simple. Quite expectedly, causal causal relationships do not work in this area: sometimes a spiritual crisis overtakes a person without objective reasons, without any spiritual practices, for no reason. I, as a person spoiled by causality, still look for subjective reasons: an unconscious request, when the psyche needs more and more powerful resources for functioning, at some point gives an appeal to the most powerful resource of all. In other words, you will be rewarded according to your needs: whoever needs a resource will receive a resource. And will he be able to chew it - this is the question ... How will it go.

The experience of the numinous experience of non-duality, given to us in sensations, is the most resourceful experience of all possible. In practice, this is an endless resource of the collective unconscious - it is the Holy Spirit, it is the Atman, it is the Tao, etc. The ability to deal with this resource is often not enough for a person, and this power is sometimes experienced so painfully that the probability of dying becomes quite obvious.

However, most crises in their pathological course have death as an alternative to overcoming the crisis: the most attractive alternative to “living as before” in a crisis, alas, does not last very long. Crises, in fact, are called crises because they combine not only opportunities, but also dangers. Fortunately, the dangers are not as dire as they seem. But the possibilities are unimaginable.

The main thing is to remember that they are.

Throughout life, each of us constantly grows and develops as a person, improves himself, learns something new.

But at some point, growth stops, a calm, settled life is created, without pretensions to something more. The personality has already reached certain heights and does not feel the need for further development. Up to a certain point. Until a certain situation occurs that requires a reassessment of values, a rethinking of actions and events. And as a result, it happens change in behavior and way of thinking This state is called crisis of personality development.

The very word “crisis” is scary and alarming. The feeling that the crisis does not bring anything good. Is it so? There are different opinions, but the most common one says that an identity crisis is a necessary for development and personal growth period , without which it is impossible to do.

A personality crisis is a kind of revolutionary situation in the mind, when "the old way is no longer suitable, but the new way is not yet possible." A person faces the problem of choosing what to prefer - to live as before or to choose a new one.

The essence of the crisis is conflict between the old and the new, between the familiar past and the possible future, between who we are now and who we could become.

The crisis moves a person to a position where the usual stereotypes of thinking and behavior no longer work, but there are no new ones yet. This is the state "between heaven and earth", an intermediate period. This is a time for questions, not answers.

At what age should we expect a personality crisis? In psychology, there is the following periodization:

• neonatal crisis;
• crisis of 1 year;
• crisis 3 years;
• crisis 7 years;
• crisis of adolescence (12-15 years);
• youth crisis (17-20 years);
• midlife crisis (30 years);
• crisis of maturity (40-45 years);
• retirement crisis (55 - 60 years).

The duration of the crisis and the degree of saturation are purely individual and depend on many conditions; it can last from a couple of months to a couple of years. The crisis begins and ends imperceptibly, its boundaries are blurred, indistinct.

Let us consider in more detail the crisis states of the individual.

neonatal crisis . For nine months we are in fetal development. We feel good and comfortable, we are protected and protected from the outside world.

But at the end of the nine months, each child must go through the process of birth. From the comfortable habitual conditions of life, we find ourselves in a completely different state, it is necessary to breathe, eat, and orient ourselves in a new way. We have to adapt to these new conditions. This is the first crisis in a person's life.

Crisis 1 year . We have more opportunities and new needs. There is a surge of independence. We react to misunderstanding on the part of adults with affective outbursts.

One of our main acquisitions in this period is walking. We get on our feet, we begin to move independently. As a result, not only does our space expand, we begin to separate ourselves from the parent. For the first time, the social situation of “we” is being destroyed: now it is not mother who leads us, but we lead mother wherever we want. Another acquisition is a kind of children's speech, which differs significantly from adult speech.

These new formations of a given age mark a break in the old situation of development and a transition to a new stage.

Crisis 3 years. One of the most difficult crises in our childhood life. It is characterized by the fact that personal changes that occur to us lead to a change in relationships with adults. This crisis arises because we begin to separate ourselves from other people, to realize our capabilities, to feel ourselves a source of will. The tendency towards independence is clearly manifested: we want to do everything and decide for ourselves. The phenomenon of "I myself" appears.

In frequent quarrels with parents, a protest riot manifests itself, and we seem to be constantly at war with them. In a family with an only child, manifestation of despotism on our part is possible. If there are several children in the family, instead of despotism, jealousy usually arises: the same tendency to power here acts as a source of jealous, intolerant attitude towards other children who have almost no rights in the family, from the point of view of us young despots.

At the age of three, old rules of behavior may depreciate in us, as a result of which we may begin to call names; old attachments to things can depreciate, because of which we can discard or even break our favorite toy if it is offered to us at the wrong time, etc. The attitude towards other people and towards oneself changes. Psychologically, we are separated from close adults.

Also, this age is characterized by negativism, stubbornness, obstinacy, self-will.

Behavioral motivation changes. At the age of 3, for the first time, we become able to act contrary to our immediate desire. Our behavior is determined not by this desire, but by relationships with another, adult person.

Crisis 7 years. May appear between 6 and 8 years of age. This crisis is caused by the new social status of the child - the status of a schoolchild. The status that is associated with the performance of educational work, so highly valued by adults.

The formation of an appropriate internal position radically changes our self-awareness, leads to a reassessment of values. We are undergoing profound changes in terms of experiences: a chain of failures or successes (in studies, in communication) leads to the formation of a stable affective complex - a feeling of inferiority, humiliation, offended pride, or vice versa, a sense of self-importance, competence, exclusivity. Thanks to the generalization of experiences, the logic of feelings appears. Experiences acquire a new meaning, the struggle of experiences becomes possible. Now our behavior will be refracted through personal experiences.

A purely crisis manifestation usually becomes: loss of spontaneity, mannerisms (secrets appear, we pretend to be “smart”, “strict”, etc.), a symptom of “bitter candy” (we feel bad, but we try not to show it). These external features, as well as the tendency to whims, affective reactions, conflicts, begin to disappear when the child emerges from the crisis and enters a new age.

The crisis of adolescence (12-15 years). This crisis is the longest in time and is directly related to the puberty of our body. Physical changes in our body invariably affect the emotional background, it becomes uneven, unstable. Relationships with others change. We place greater demands on ourselves and on adults and protest against being treated as if we were children. There is a passionate desire, if not to be, then at least to appear and be considered an adult. Defending our new rights, we protect many areas of our lives from the control of our parents and often go into conflict with them. Our behavior is changing dramatically: many of us become rude, uncontrollable, do everything in defiance of our elders, do not obey them, ignore comments (teenage negativity) or, conversely, we can withdraw into ourselves.

Crisis of youth (17-20 years). The usual school life is about to be left behind, and we will enter the threshold of real adult life. In this regard, emotional stress increases significantly, fears may develop - before a new life, before the possibility of a mistake.

The period of youth is the time of real, adult responsibility: the army, the university, the first job, perhaps the first marriage. Parents stop standing behind, a truly independent life begins.

This is the time to look to the future. The period of stabilization of the Personality. At this time, we develop a system of stable views on the world and our place in it - a worldview is formed. This is a time of self-determination, professional and personal.

Crisis 30 years. The time when the first frenzy of youth is over, and we begin to evaluate what has been done, and look much more soberly into the future. We begin to form questions that we are not able to answer, but which sit inside and destroy us: “What is the meaning of my existence!?”, “Is this what I wanted!? If so, what's next!? etc.

Analyzing the path we have traveled, our achievements and failures, we find that despite the already established and outwardly prosperous life, our personality is imperfect. There comes a feeling that a lot of time and effort has been wasted, that very little has been done compared to what could be done, and so on. There is a reassessment of values, a critical review of one's "I", the idea of ​​​​one's life is changing. Sometimes interest in what used to be the main thing in it is lost.

In some cases, the crisis leads to the fact that we deliberately destroy the old way of life.

For men at this time, divorces, a change of work or a change in lifestyle, the acquisition of expensive things, frequent changes in sexual partners are typical, and there is a clear orientation towards the young age of the latter. He, as it were, begins to get what he could not get at an earlier age, he realizes his childhood and youthful needs.

Women in their mid-30s typically experience a reversal of the priorities set at the onset of early adulthood. Marriage- and child-rearing women are now increasingly attracted to professional goals. At the same time, those who gave their energies to work now tend to channel them into the fold of family and marriage.

The crisis of 30 years is often called the crisis of the meaning of life. It is with this period that the search for the meaning of existence is usually associated. This quest, like the whole crisis, marks the transition from youth to maturity.

Crisis 40 years. This crisis is, as it were, a repetition of the crisis of 30 years and occurs when the previous crisis did not lead to a proper solution of existential problems.

At this time, we are acutely experiencing dissatisfaction with our lives, the discrepancy between life plans and their implementation. To this is added a change in attitude on the part of colleagues at work: the time is passing when one could be considered "promising", "promising".

Quite often the crisis of 40 years is caused by the exacerbation of family relations. The loss of some close people, the loss of a very important common side of the life of spouses - direct participation in the lives of children, everyday care for them - contributes to the final understanding of the nature of marital relations. And if, apart from the children of the spouses, nothing significant connects both of them, the family may break up.

In the event of a crisis of 40 years, a person has to once again rebuild his life plan, develop in many respects a new "I am a concept" . Serious changes in life can be associated with this crisis, up to a change in profession and the creation of a new family.

The crisis of retirement (55-60 years). This crisis is associated with the termination of employment and retirement. The habitual regime and way of life is violated, we have nothing to do with ourselves. At the same time, we retain our ability to work, and its lack of demand greatly depresses. We feel as if we have been “thrown to the sidelines of life”, which is already taking place without our active participation.

We suddenly realize that life is coming to an end, and we are no longer in the center of its cycle. We feel lost, we can become depressed, lose interest in life.

To get out of this crisis, it is very important to find a use for yourself, to find a new occupation that can replace work.

Personality crises accompany us throughout life. Any struggle with various established rules, values ​​and norms of behavior is acutely experienced by us. The crisis manifests itself as a fear of change, a person immersed in the vicissitudes of life has a feeling that it will never end and he will not be able to get out of this state. Often a crisis feels like the collapse of a life.

Each age crisis is both a change in a person's worldview and a change in his status in relation to both society and himself. Learning to perceive yourself, new, from a positive point of view is the main thing that will help you overcome the psychological difficulties of age-related crises.

Psychologist
services "Urgent social assistance"
Bernaz Xenia Georgievna

Throughout life, a person faces various crises due to his biological, mental and professional development.

Age crises due to maturation, restructuring, aging of the human body. Changes in mental abilities are the result of age-related changes. This means that it is legitimate to consider age-related changes in a person, generated by biological development, as an independent factor that determines age-related crises. These crises are among the normative processes necessary for the normal progressive course of personal development.

Crises of professional development are caused by a change and restructuring of the leading activity (for example, from educational to professional). A variety of professional crises are creative crises caused by creative failure, lack of significant achievements, professional helplessness. These crises are extremely painful for representatives of creative professions: writers, directors, actors, architects, inventors, etc.

Crises of a neurotic nature are associated with intrapersonal changes: the restructuring of consciousness, unconscious impressions, instincts, irrational tendencies - all that generates an internal conflict, a mismatch of psychological integrity. They are traditionally the subject of study by Freudians, neo-Freudians and other psychoanalytic schools.

Along with the mentioned groups of psychological crises, there is another huge layer of crisis phenomena caused by significant sharp changes in living conditions. The determinants of these life crises are such important events as graduation from an educational institution, employment, marriage, the birth of a child, a change of residence, retirement, and other changes in a person's individual biography. These changes in socio-economic, temporal and spatial circumstances are accompanied by significant subjective difficulties, mental tension, restructuring of consciousness and behavior.

And finally, one more group of crises should be singled out, caused by critical life circumstances, dramatic and sometimes tragic events. These factors have a devastating, sometimes catastrophic outcome for a person. There is a radical restructuring of consciousness, a revision of value orientations and the meaning of life in general. These crises flow on the verge of human capabilities and are accompanied by extreme emotional experiences. They are caused by such abnormal events as disability, divorce, involuntary unemployment, migration, unexpected death of a loved one, imprisonment, etc. Let's call this group critical crises.

The first three groups of personality crises have a relatively pronounced chronological, age-related character. They are normative; all people experience them, but the level of severity of the crisis does not always take on the character of a conflict. The prevailing tendency of normative crises is a constructive, developing personality.

The second three groups of personality crises are non-normative, probabilistic in nature. The time of onset, life circumstances, scenarios, participants in the crisis are random. These event crises are caused by a combination of circumstances. The way out of such crises is problematic. Sometimes it is destructive, and then society gets cynics, outcasts, homeless people, alcoholics, suicides.

Of course, personality crises can occur at any age and it is hardly possible to predict them.

Nevertheless, for a large number of people, life crises occur at approximately the same age, which serves as the basis for dividing and describing these stages of development of a mature personality.

Twenty-year-olds usually deal with choosing a career and starting a family, setting life goals and starting to achieve them. Later, around thirty, many come to re-evaluate their previous choices of career, family, life goals. Sometimes it comes to a radical change in life tasks, a change in profession and the collapse of family or friendships. After thirty years, a person, as a rule, goes through a period of getting used to new or newly confirmed choices. Finally, at the end of their careers, people face a new crisis due to the impending withdrawal from active work and retirement. This crisis is especially difficult for managers who are accustomed to everyday activity, a sense of the importance and necessity of their work, to their leadership role in the organization.

Each of the described age crises can affect the activities of the organization. However, if crises at the dawn and dusk of a career are usually perceived as natural, then a mid-life crisis often seems paradoxical and unexpected. Therefore, we consider it necessary to consider it in more detail, touching upon the psychological problems underlying it.

The first stage of middle age begins around the age of thirty and moves into the beginning of the next decade. This stage is called the “decade of doom” or “mid-life crisis”. Its main characteristic is the awareness of the discrepancy between dreams and life goals of a person.

People's dreams and plans almost always have some unrealistic features. By the age of thirty, a person is already gaining enough experience to realize the illusory nature of many of his fantasies. Therefore, the assessment of their divergence from reality at this stage is colored, as a rule, in emotionally negative tones. Life ceases to seem endless, and time turns out to be so fleeting that it is impossible to have time to do something important and worthwhile in life. The gap between dreams and reality suddenly turns out to be an unbridgeable abyss. The idea of ​​a future happy and dignified life that awaits you is replaced by a feeling that “life has passed by” and it is too late to change anything in it. Until recently, they could say about you: “Well, this one will go far.” Now you feel that the time of hope is running out, and whether you like it or not, you have to state with bitterness that you will no longer become either a mayor or a sir, or a member of the Duma, or a corresponding member, or even a foreman in your own SMU.

Disillusionment, which is not unusual at the age of thirty, can be threatening to the individual. Dante described his own confusion at this age:
Having passed the earthly life to the middle,
I found myself in a dark forest
The path is right
Lost in the darkness of the valley.

The biographies of many creative people often show dramatic changes in their lives somewhere around the age of 35. Some of them, such as Gauguin, had just begun their creative work at that time. Others, however, on the contrary, lost their creative motivation for about 35 years, and some even passed away. The frequency of death of many gifted or incompetent people between the ages of 35 and 40 increases abnormally.

Those who make it through this decade with their creativity usually find significant changes in the nature of creativity. Often these changes relate to the intensity of their work: for example, brilliant impulsiveness is replaced by mature, calm skill. One of the reasons is that the "impulsive brilliance" of youth requires great vitality. At least in part, these are physical forces, so that no one can keep them indefinitely. A manager leading a busy life by the age of 35 must change the pace of his life and not be so “given all the best and scatter”. Thus, the problem of limited physical strength inevitably arises in the life of a person of any profession.

For many, the renewal process that begins when they face their illusions and physical decline eventually leads them to a more peaceful and even happier life.

After 50, health issues become more pressing and there is a growing awareness that "time is running out." And people are beginning to understand that the main drawback of old age is that it passes, and a person, as he is born, and leaves life without hair, teeth and illusions.