Anasthasia Blanché is a psychoanalyst, psycho-sociologist, life coach, co-founder of the International Institute of Clinical Psychology, and a member of the Laboratory of Social Change (Paris-7 University). She works with individuals and groups in life-changing situations.

With increased life expectancy and as the baby boomers reach retirement age, we can anticipate major social changes. Many of us will live a quarter of a century, if not more, after retirement — inaugurating a stage of life that is unprecedented in the history of humanity. But how will we deal with it psychologically?
‘You have to imagine a happy Ulysses,’ says the author comparing present-day retirees to Homer’s hero, who in the course of a long voyage into the unknown had to overcome numerous trials that ultimately transformed him.
How can you detach yourself from your professional identity while hanging on to what is best in your life, succeed in renewing your relationship with your partner and remain active, even as accede to a new rhythm of life?
Because they have to respond to a number of challenges, today’s retirees are the driving force behind what the author hopes will be a major collective transformation: as Ulysses approaches Ithaca he develops a different relationship with his travelling companions. Could retirees, like Ulysses, be the most apt to transmit, collaborate, and even to change the world?

• Few books offer such an in-depth analysis of retirement.
• A sociologist’s point of view on a new phase of life that will concern ever-more people.
• The Ulysses metaphor is both accessible and thought provoking and should interest a wide readership.
• A modern approach to guilt, inspired by Adlerian philosophy.
• An analysis aimed at the general reader, illustrated with many film references, from Into the Wild to La Vie des Autres, as well as with clinical vignettes taken from everyday life and from psychoanalytic practice.