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= The_Culture_of_Narcissism =
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Introduction
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'The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing
Expectations' (1979), by Christopher Lasch, is a psychological and
cultural, artistic and historical synthesis that explores the roots
and ramifications of the normalization of pathological narcissism in
20th-century American culture. For the mass-market edition published
in September of the same year, Lasch won the 1980 US National Book
Award in the category Current Interest (paperback).
[
https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1980
"National Book Awards - 1980"]. National Book Foundation. Retrieved
2012-03-09. There was a "Contemporary" or "Current" award category
from 1972 to 1980.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual
awards for hardcover and paperback books in many categories. Most of
the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one, but its
first edition was eligible only in the same award year.
Summary
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Lasch proposes that since World War II, America has produced a
personality-type consistent with clinical definitions of "pathological
narcissism". This pathology is not akin to everyday narcissism, a
hedonistic egoism, but with clinical diagnosis of narcissistic
personality disorder. For Lasch, "pathology represents a heightened
version of normality." He locates symptoms of this personality
disorder in the radical political movements of the 1960s (such as the
Weather Underground), as well as in the spiritual cults and movements
of the 1970s, from est to Rolfing.
Reaction
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An early response to 'The Culture of Narcissism' commented that Lasch
had identified the outcomes in American society of the decline of the
family over the previous century. The book quickly became a bestseller
and a talking point, being further propelled to success after Lasch
notably visited Camp David to advise President Jimmy Carter for his
"crisis of confidence" speech of July 15, 1979. Later editions include
a new afterword, "The Culture of Narcissism Revisited".
Author Louis Menand argues that the book has been commonly misused by
liberals and conservatives alike, who cited it for their own
ideological agendas. Menand wrote: Lasch was not saying that things
were better in the 1950s, as conservatives offended by countercultural
permissiveness probably took him to be saying. He was not saying that
things were better in the 1960s, as former activists disgusted by the
'me-ism' of the seventies are likely to have imagined. He was
diagnosing a condition that he believed had originated in the
nineteenth century. Lasch attempted to correct many of these
misapprehensions with 'The Minimal Self' in 1984.
Anthony Elliott writes that 'The Culture of Narcissism' and 'The
Minimal Self' are Lasch's two best-known books.
Some editions
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* New York: Norton, 1979.
* New York: Warner Books, 1980.
* New York: Norton; Revised edition (May 1991).
See also
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* 'The Age of Entitlement' (2020)
*
References
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*Menand, Louis. "American Studies." Farrar, Straus & Giroux: New
York, 2002.
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