Culture of Narcissism\" by Christopher Lasch Current

Culture of Narcissism" By Christopher Lasch

Current paper is a report on 'The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations' written by Christopher Lasch. The book was first published in 1979. The author will focus on why the 1950s were simpler times as compared to modern era. The author will also discuss the theme and topic of the book and critically analyze the depiction of contemporary culture in America by Lash.

The main question of this book was: why it happened that a familiar and serious mental disorder was replaced and dominated by another in United States?. How it emerged that patients having strong symptoms of classic neuroses were reinstated by patients with 'diffuse dissatisfactions'? Why there has been a trend of more and more patients coming with indistinct problem like 'feeling dissatisfied with their lives; feeling that their survival has no reason; with self-esteem and ego problems and with 'generally lacking ability of getting along?

"The Culture of Narcissism" is the depiction of modern culture of selfishness in America. Lash has compared it with the nineteenth century culture. Christopher Lasch was historian in the University of Rochestor. Narcissist was a clinical term but Lasch used this term to diagnose a pathology that appears to be spread every where in American life.

According to Lash's definition, the 'narcissist' as a result of anger and self-hatred flees into an ostentatious self-conception and uses other people as an n instrument of satisfaction even while longing their love and endorsement. Lasch saw the reverberation of such characters in "the fascination with fame and celebrity, the fear of competition, the inability to suspend disbelief, the shallowness and transitory quality of personal relations, the horror of death." "The happy hooker," Lasch wrote, "stands in place of Horatio Alger as the prototype of personal success."

In this book Christopher Lasch has analyzed the contemporary culture and man's relationship with it in a clever, perceptive and attractive way. However, the importance of this book is not just the way it has attempted to present a rather technical psychoanalytic explanation as why narcissism has increased in contemporary culture, but it is also significant because it has presented the explanation in the most powerful manner for the literary audience though the reader may not be fully trained in the fine points of psychotherapy. Lasch in this book has maintained a deep balance between the technical and the naturalistic. Yet there emerge serious problems as this is a one sided psychological orientation with over extended application of this course and an unfinished treatment of narcissism itself.

Christopher Lasch challenges that the narcissistic personality is not just the best exemplification of the passion of modern culture but also in itself a creation of narcissism culture. (Lasch, pp.17-26). The book in many ways addressed the question raised by Richard Sonnett. Claiming that narcissism is "the protestant ethic of modern times," Sonnett wonders: "Given the sheer increase of narcissistic character disorders appearing in the clinics, it is surprising that analysts do not ask whether, in addition to their being now able to perceive narcissism, the society in which the self moves is not encouraging these symptoms to the fore" (Lasch, pp.21)

Lasch gives a complicated yet fascinating explanation regarding how the society does in actual supports these symptoms to the fore. Yet, it is obvious that the way Lasch applies the central argument to the social milieu has weakened his position because his focus is not consistent.

Fundamentally the argument presented by Lasch has two aspects or components and each component strengthens the other. Part 1 of the argument states that arrangements within modern, capitalistic society have created belief systems and life plans which hold at their roots self-absorption and self-aggrandizement. He himself asserts to be narrating "…a way of life that is dying…the culture of competitive individualism which in its decadence has carried the logic of individualism to the extreme of a war of all against all, the pursuit of happiness to the dead end of a narcissistic pre-occupation with the self. Strategies of narcissistic survival now present themselves as emancipation from the repressive conditions of the past, thus giving rise to a 'cultural revolution' that reproduces the worst features of the collapsing civilization it claims to criticize. (Lasch, pp.21)

These "strategies of narcissistic survival" presented as "emancipation from the repressive conditions of that past," are according to Lasch, can be evidenced in every phase of the society including advertising and marketing, popular music and supports, business, movies and education. In the end of the book, Lasch describes that "narcissism appears realistically to represent the best way of coping with the tensions and anxieties of modern life and the prevailing social conditions tend to bring out narcissistic traits that are present, in varying degrees, in everyone." (Lasch, pp.101)

The main focus of the Lash on family values and society overall influenced by narcissism; according to him, family values have declined due to Narcissism. He claims that commercialism has weakened the family and society bonding and thus ultimately has distorted the growth of character. He blames modern life style which has taken the child from parents especially from mother and thus interfered with the customary stages of attachment to the parents and family. Lasch discusses that in the modern family is in the rapprochement crisis which each child has to experience. He is of the view that modern parents in particular the mother does not offer the 'optimal frustration' and that is the reason that the ensure release of disconnect amongst the child and parents does not occur.

Lasch also criticized the politics and implemented same theory by saying that this system is just producing rootless figures who are dedicated completely to manage of an image to manage crisis. He is of the view that narcissism of politician is let downed by the narcissism of voter in the way that voter under his fantasies of power identifies the person who is going to win and afterwards the same person will cause arising anger in the voters.