January 13, 2022

After many years of pondering, fretting, researching, writing, editing, and discussing, my book, Quarterlife: The Search for Self in Early Adulthood, is finally available for pre-order!

The official publication day isn’t until July 26th—many months away—but I couldn’t wait to tell you.

So many people in the Salome community have known that I was writing a book but… well… after years of writing, it can seem like I was just spinning tales.

But now I can say: “It’s really happening! I promise.” And I’m excited to share the news.

Quarterlife is my attempt to offer Jungian psychology to pre-midlife adults in a way that feels accessible and soulful. In the book, I define “Quarterlife” as the long-ignored stage of adulthood between adolescence and midlife, and I argue that the goal for all Quarterlifers is to find stability and meaning in their lives.

The desire of adulthood is not just to survive, make money, have children, and buy a house. Those are the social prescriptions that we all need to wade through on our own. The longing of Quarterlife is also to find a sense of individual meaning and purpose in order to help answer the question: Why am I here? And also: Why am I here in this time of crisis?

Without religions that touch our souls or cultures that vibrate with tradition and mystery, this combined search for stability and meaning is complex at best and life-threatening at worst.

Pre-order “Quarterlife”

In early December, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a rare advisory on Protecting Youth Mental Health. In it, Dr. Murthy articulated the urgency of need for people coming of age today:

“Recent national surveys of young people have shown alarming increases in the prevalence of certain mental health challenges— in 2019, one in three high school students and half of female students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, an overall increase of 40% from 2009.”

There’s no question that we’re facing an epidemic of suffering, and it’s not just in the United States. Skyrocketing rates of depression and anxiety plague young adults all over the world. I am deeply impressed with the clarity and comprehensiveness of this public health advisory and am also grateful to see that attention is finally being placed on the health and well-being of young adults, too often mocked and ridiculed in click-bait headlines rather than seen as humans in need of support.

My hope is that Quarterlife might be a part of the conversation around how to ease suffering and gain orientation in this time of life. In a time of climate crises and social collapse, we can no longer just look to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and individual diagnoses to provide the answers for the suffering of early adulthood. Something much larger is at play and we need more soulful solutions.

Jungian Analyst and author, James Hollis, has this to say about Quarterlife:

"Absent the structured rites of passage that enabled our ancestors to emerge from childhood into adulthood, how is a young person supposed to grow up today? While we all know the Sturm und Drang of mid-life, who has really addressed those who are just beginning to enter choppy waters? Satya Doyle Byock’s Quarterlife is a valuable guide to the perplexed in those seas. Filled with illustrative examples, she provides multiple tips, clues, and guidance for those who otherwise feel alone."

-James Hollis, author of Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life

Thank you for being there, as always. I’m grateful to be able to share this news with you as we continue exploring together how to make sense of living in these very strange times.

xo, Satya

Satya Doyle Byock, Director of The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies