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The Age of Narcissism

So. Here at the outset of 2025 the new regime is settling in and we now know the direction our leader and his cohorts wish to take our society.

We know that kindness, generosity, intelligence, justice, sympathy, honesty, and a sense of humor will have no place in the governing equation. Cruelty, greed, dishonesty, and overwhelming narcissism seem to underpin most of what is afoot.

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The ascendancy of this collection of people suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder reminds me of Christopher Lasch’s remarkable book The Culture of Narcissism. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by exaggerated self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy (to name three of the primary symptoms).

Published in 1979, The Culture of Narcissism is Lasch’s chronicling of how and why narcissists became much more prevalent in the 1960s and 70s (and have since become the dominant personality type in our society.) He would continue this history with The Minimal Self published in 1984.

I read both books at the time they were published and they clarified for me what was happening culturally, socially, and politically in those days. These books also predicted with chilling accuracy much of what has subsequently transpired in our culture and society since the late 1970s.

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The Culture of Narcissism details how our society evolved from one of extended families and neighborhoods and cohesive communities into what we have today, and explains how our collective desire to contribute to the greater good of our society was supplanted by the supremacy of narcissists – people who cannot care about other people because, being the children of narcissists and raised on mass delusional messaging (TV), they lack the capacity to love anyone, including themselves, despite outward appearances to the contrary.

By the way, The Culture of Narcissism was a massive bestseller, highly controversial, and caused dozens of books and thousands of essays to be written in response to Lasch’s theories and opinions expressed in his book. And The Culture of Narcissism gained even more notoriety when President Jimmy Carter invited Lasch to come to Camp David to advise Jimmy on his famous “crisis of confidence” speech of July 15, 1979.

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Forty-six years later, the great challenge for non-narcissists in America is: how do we survive in a society ruled by such emotionally disturbed people? I suggest we revive the foundational activities of The Sixties counter culture: watching less TV (and TV-like devices), having potlucks (with singing and story telling), wearing colorful clothing and fun head-wear, displaying humorous bumper stickers, boycotting hideous corporations, celebrating small pleasures, and speaking truth to power.

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The Youngbloods singing Get Together