Are you feeling down about middle age? Do you find yourself thinking that time is hurtling and you'll never reach your goals — or, perhaps more distressingly, that they don't even fit who you are anymore?

If you're in the age range of roughly 40 to 65, such angst is hardly unique. Indeed, it was back in 1965 that French-Canadian psychoanalyst Elliott Jacques coined the phrase "midlife crisis" to describe such potent symptoms.

In Jacques' view, midlife is the period when we face finitude — and struggle emotionally with the fading of our youthful dreams for great accomplishment.