/lit/ - Literature

Surprised no one has posted this classic from the 70’s.
Hold’s up well despite the Freudianism & dated cultural references.
Overall thesis is majorly applicable to the 21st century American political/societal/mental landscape.

>>19422755
this also

>>19291068

>The new narcissist is haunted not by guilt but by anxiety. He seeks not to inflict his own certainties on others but to find a meaning in life. Liberated from the superstitions of the past, he doubts even the realities of his own existence. Superficially relaxed and tolerant, he finds little use for dogmas of racial and ethnic purity but at the same time forfeits the security of group loyalties and regards everyone as a rival for the favors conferred by a paternalistic state. His sexual attitudes are permissive rather than puritanical, even though his emancipation from ancient taboos brings him no sexual peace. Fiercely competitive in his demand for approval and acclaim, he distrusts competition because he repudiates the competitive ideologies that flourished at an earlier state of capitalist development and distrusts even their limited expression in sports and games. He extols cooperation and teamwork while harboring deeply antisocial impulses. He praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to himself. Acquisitive in the sense that his cravings have no limits, he does not accumulate goods and provisions against the future, in the manner of the acquisitive individualist of the nineteenth-century political economy, but demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire.

How much of Lasch is Freudian hocus pocus/Barnum effect and how much is actually applicable to today? Many points of his argument seem entirely anachronistic in light of today with the new political awareness.

>>18252796