DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

that were pushing upon me that this was success.” (p.2). His acceptance of the
conventional status quo meant that he had, in his early adulthood, been living
according to the materialist ideology. He outlines the basic tenets of this life
philosophy in the following passage:
“I had some fanciful ideas that I was going to work to save humanity but I decided
that money was much better. Therefore I would say for a period of about fifteen,
sixteen years, no, longer than that, for twenty plus years, I was running a career
that was about being successful, it was about getting power and doing those things.
So I wasn’t somebody who worked in one company and saw themselves being
there for life, I was opportunistic, I saw opportunities that would arise and further
me and that through those steps I was becoming more and more successful, or what
was perceived to be successful. I was making more money, I had more position,
more power, I was being able to influence what was going on and to me that is how
I had been programmed, so therefore I had a reconciliation in myself that doing
fourteen hours a day, six and a half days a week is what it takes to be successful.”
(Interview 2, p.1)
Guy calls this approach to life the “escalator theory of life” (Emails, p.2). This is the
belief that acquisition of more money, higher position and more status was the key to
a good life. He justified this to himself by the material benefits his family were
gaining, not realising the emotional losses they were also experiencing:
“I could justify what I was doing because I was doing it so that we could have a
nice car, a nice house, go on holidays, and therefore it was about giving to the
family all the material things in the world that I could earn for them but being
totally bereft on the emotional side. That just wasn’t there, that’s what I had a wife
for. She took care of that, I took care of the other stuff.” (Interview 2, p.3)
Guy’s focus on material gain and the pressures of his job meant that other areas of his
life were neglected; for example he felt he did not really know his children:
“I had three great kids who I didn’t know because I was never there for them, and
to a certain extent they saw me as this scary person who used to come into the
house, was extremely tired, emotionally drained, mainly because I had been
suppressing the emotions as opposed to merely expressing them, and would just
lash out. (Interview 2, p.2)
This materialistic mindset is one of the key areas of change over the duration of crisis
and transition. Guy refers to the transformation in his values over the crisis period,
particularly highlighting the lessening importance of materialistic values:
“The way that I approach life and embrace life is very, very different. I am not
motivated by money, I am not driven by money, I don’t have to have large houses.
And I have been tested on that because I happen to be in a community in New York
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