As they approach middle age, the men of the baby-boom generation are often faced with a common set of problems, which include insecurity in work, difficulties in building and maintaining relationships with women and men, and an inability to achieve even minimal feeling awareness. According to Jungian analyst Guy Corneau, these problems revolve around an overwhelming experience of the fragility that underlines conventional images of masculinity. Corneau connects this experience to the profound feeling men often have of their father's silence or absence which can be literal, but is especially emotional and spiritual. Examining the effects of the search for masculine identity in the lives of numerous men seen in therapy, he shows that the key to healing lies in the ability to be a father to oneself.