A great book reviewed, if not a great book review
Christopher Lasch forces
history through a multi-disciplinary wringer in order to craft his scathing critique
of contemporary American society. He employs sociology, literary criticism,
neo-Marxist economics and proto-libertarian politics, but the force with the
mightiest gravitational pull in Lasch’s book is unquestionably the author’s
version of Freudian psychology. That mass lies at the center of his central
argument, and it also pulls every satellite argument into its orbit.
Unfortunately for Lasch, such an aggressively Freudian
reading of history and society must, by its very nature, contain certain flaws,
for it requires generalizations that reduce complex beings into predictable
psycho-sexual machines. Lasch’s psychological reading of modern consumer
culture displays his impressive intellect, but it ignores the nuances of a
pluralistic society with intricate and multi-layered relationships,
regionalisms and religious beliefs. Lasch’s reliance on universal psychological
truths ignores these social subtleties. Though it might help a book hit the
bestseller list, squishy Freudian language offers a poor vocabulary with which
to discuss either history or contemporary society. (For Lasch, commercial
success was ensured when President Jimmy Carter referred to the book in his
famous “malaise” speech.)
Reading between the lines of superegos, ids and “parental
introjects,” one finds a central theme within Lasch’s book that describes
modern Americans as introverted yet empty, always looking inward and finding
nothing of substance, and filling the resultant insatiable need with consumer
goods and feel-good self-help commodities. The United States is a nation of narcissists: greedy, frivolous and
disdainful of values that once sustained generations of citizens, Lasch argues.
Buy This Book
And while you are reading it, enjoy a lovely snack of gourmet licorice.
RUSH
Saw these guys in concert long long ago, and while they may have mellowed, they still can ROCK!!