Narcissism

By Melissa

Christopher Lasch, the author of The Culture of Narcissism, took a closer look at the role of narcissism within society. Most people are under the impression that narcissism is self- love and self-adoration while in reality it is inner emptiness. Lasch states that narcissism is a condition present n all but only brought out by certain social conditions. A mature individual recognizes that we are dependent on other people separate from ourselves. The New Age is rooted in narcissism, which tries to restore the feeling of oneness with the world while denying the reality that the world is definitely not that way.

"The new narcissist is not haunted by guilt but by anxiety." People today hunger not for personal salvation but rather for the illusion of persona well-being. New therapies belonging to the human potential movement stressed the idea that an individual determine's one fate. This is also an expression of the American way, work hard and you can do whatever you set your mind to. This way of thinking leads the individual to isolation.

Lasch then takes a look at strong emotions. He states that humans have prevented themselves from feeling strong emotions so much to the extent that they don't even know what it is to feel true desire anymore. People would rather be consumed with rage, which is a product of defenselessness against desire. The cult of intimacy then originates not in the assertion of personality but rather in its collapse. Personality is the reproduction of society in the individual.

It is unfortunate that self-preservation has replaced the self-improvement goal of earthly existence. How does society ever expect to grow this way? Then we wish to mass educate, but mass education doesn't insure the quality of education given to the masses. We are trained to work but not to think. Thus our society is becoming the ideas of repetition to get ahead, and who can call that progress?