Menopausal anxiety manifests as jealousy and persecution fantasies as defense against a finished life.

Evidence

Yet the earth does not change; the summits remain out of reach; the messages received—even in blinding clarity—are hard to decipher; the inner lights go out; what remains before the mirror is a woman one day older than yesterday. Doleful hours of depression follow moments of fervor. The body determines this rhythm since a reduction in hormonal secretions is offset by a hyperactive hypophysis; but it is above all the psychological state that orders this alternation. For the agitation, illusions, and fervor are merely a defense against the inevitability of what has been. Once again, anxiety grabs the throat of the one whose life is already finished, even though death is not imminent. Instead of fighting against despair, she often chooses to intoxicate herself with it. She rehashes grievances, regrets, and recriminations; she imagines that her neighbors and family are engaging in dark machinations; if she has a sister or woman friend of her age who is associated with her life, they may construct persecution fantasies together. But above all she becomes morbidly jealous of her husband: she is jealous of his friends, his sisters, his job; and rightly or wrongly, she accuses some rival of being responsible for all her problems. Cases of pathological jealousy mostly occur between fifty and fifty-five years of age. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1718

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s earlier chapters on woman’s dependence on the other for her sense of self — when the body fails, anxiety latches onto the husband/rival as the source of worth. — connects to: The fear of bodily decay can make women hostile to life itself — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1571; Menopause distress is produced by anxious consciousness, not the body — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1708; Menopause brings repressed erotic fantasy that surfaces as neurotic behavior (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Menopause distress is produced by anxious consciousness, not the body #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1708
• Menopause brings repressed erotic fantasy that surfaces as neurotic behavior #expands (0.80)
• Regulation of women’s bodies also stems from anxiety about physicality and death #expands (0.75) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 598