Lasch

      This is Mary Beth, and I can honestly say that I don't believe I have ever been given a reading assignment in college thus far that made as much sense to me as The Culture of Narcissism, written by Christopher Lasch. I found myself writing side notes all over the pages that read "so true!," "sad," "my life," and "wow, I was born in the wrong era."
      There were many quotes within the reading that drew me in and made me think. One such quote was "To live for the moment is the prevailing passion--to live for yourself, not for your predecessors or posterity" (p. 5).  This quote illustrates a new theory on life that I find to ring true in contemporary society. We can witness this phenomena is today's youth, who are waiting to settle down longer and longer. Thirty is the new twenty these days. Young men and women are so focused on their own individual success, that they tend to put off having families until much later than generations before. It is not so much a concern of theirs anymore. The attitude is "someday I'll have a family, but not now," because now, they are too focused on themselves, too narcissistic. As a result, such individuals find themselves well into their thirties, successful, yet, alone.
      This is also in part due to an extreme fear of aging, which Lasch also discusses within his book. In fact, Lasch argues that "self preservation has replaced self improvement as the goal of early existence" (p. 53). The amount of plastic surgery, dieting mechanisms, etc. within our society only help to support Lasch's argument. "Through medicine, psychiatry, and the camera, the individual ceaselessly examines himself for signs of aging and ill health...." (p. 49). There are many theories on where this fear of aging stems from, but I honestly believe our generation has, in fact, fallen victim. I, myself, have a fear of aging, of looking back and wishing for my youth. This has to be a result of the society I live in. From a generalized perspective, generations past seem to have reached a point of self-actualization in their old age. Perhaps the issue is that this point of self-actualization is coming sooner for individuals in contemporary society, so that they feel they have nothing more to look forward to it. Whatever it may be, we must understand that "personality is the reproduction of society in the individual" (p. 34), and therefore, only by examining society can we make psychoanalytic discoveries pertaining to youth today.