The Middle Passage \u2013 \u201ca bad title\u201d, admits Aviv \u2013 advances the Jungian belief that if you hold on to the identity you first developed in young adulthood, in middle age you\u2019ll end up small and afraid. You have to alter something fundamental in order to make it to the other side. Over green tea at a cafe near her home in Brooklyn\u2019s Park Slope, the New Yorker staff writer on the deliciously nebulous \u201cpsychology, medical ethics and criminal justice\u201d beat confirms that\u2019s basically, frustratingly true. \u201cI have always been very afraid of change,\u201d she says. \u201cI had a really profound high school relationship where I totally lost myself. Everything I\u2019d been interested in before just fell away.\u201d She feared this would happen when she gave birth to her first child in 2017, and was thrilled when it didn\u2019t: \u201cI thought I had won, as if there weren\u2019t more opportunities for change later down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/97c4687b7937cae94fcc04344a6f2fb597544f0c\/203_0_1492_1194\/master\/1492.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=37e5f201e550cb8e36df4c65928e4de9\" "\\"Rachel")
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