DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

had been striving, striving, striving” (p.7). Lynne says that in her career woman days
she was “seen as the cash cow” (p.9). She was a “career woman” (p.8) in every sense
of the word – her work fuelled her being, and her life was devoted to the challenges of
corporate life. The self was focused on striving and on proving itself:
“The old Lynne was striving, task-orientated, ambitious, my sister-in-law would say
that I was quite uptight. Very much working to lists, I’d have lists for work and lists
for home, plans and schedules about what we were going to do, and who we were
going to see, organised out of all existence almost. And not very colourful, you
know, a kind of black and white, and not probably very interested in people.” (p.9)
After resigning from her job, going freelance and joining a poetry club, Lynne
described a life that “feels less driven, and it feels more connected to lots of bits of me
and lots of bits of my world.“ (p.12). The new self that emerges from Lynne’s trying
time is “more rounded”, as though the corporate self had become narrow and
emaciated in its exclusive focus on career:
“So what the point is now is that I am far more rounded as a person. I think the sides
of me that were pushed aside when I was in corporate life have now been given a
chance to grow – the poetry, the writing, and I do nice things, I’m learning to ride a
horse (laughs), which is very scary, but great fun. I do nurturing things for me, and
new friendships that are much more satisfactory, fulfilling, equal, than a lot of
relationships I had in the past.” (p.11)
Angela described creating a false corporate self prior to her crisis: “I tried to tailor
myself into this corporate person for so many years, the executive type.” (p.11). She
comes to the realisation after her crisis that she is not suited to this life and role:
“I am not going back into the office world, I don’t think it suits me, I am training in
something genuinely creative now, so that they can’t suddenly give me spreadsheets
and accounts work and credit control as part of my job description ‘open to change’, I
want something specific, a title that I do.” (p.5)
She describes realising that under the layers of corporate persona that have been built
up, she is sensitive, “a bit like a little hippie really” (p.10). She loves the country,
horses, the outdoors, animals, art, writing, and all things creative. She now realises
her actual self is not the corporate woman she tried to be:
“I tried to be the corporate woman and it’s been disastrous so more quite a sensitive
type of soul really.” (p.11)
Mary describes herself prior to the crisis: “The me had always been the striving, the
directional, the in-control.” (Mary, p.6). She further describes how her role defined
her:
“I had no idea how much I had been held together every day, every hour, and every
minute by the daily routine of sitting at my desk, the foot high inbox and the endless
meetings in glass prisons at the top of merchant banks. These were part of the fabric
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