Table of Contents
Introduction E.J. Dionne Jr. xv
Preface 1
Acknowledgments 9
I The Awareness Movement and the Social Invasion of the Self
The Waning of the Sense of Historical Time 11
The Therapeutic Sensibility 15
From Politics to Self-Examination 23
Confession and Anticonfession 26
The Void Within 31
The Progressive Critique of Privatism 36
The Critique of Privatism: Richard Sennett on the Fall of Public Man 38
II The Narcissistic Personality of Our Time
Narcissism as a Metaphor of the Human Condition 43
Psychology and Sociology 46
Narcissism in Recent Clinical Literature 49
Social Influences on Narcissism 55
The World View of the Resigned 64
III Changing Modes of Making It: From Horatio Alger to the Happy Hooker
The Original Meaning of the Work Ethic 68
From "Self-Culture" to Self-Promotion through "Winning Images" 71
The Eclipse of Achievement 75
The Art of Social Survival 80
The Apotheosis of Individualism 83
IV The Banality of Pseudo-Self-Awareness: Theatrics of Politics and Everyday Existence
The Propaganda of Commodities 89
Truth and Credibility 93
Advertising and Propaganda 94
Politics as Spectacle 96
Radicalism as Street Theater 100
Hero Worship and Narcissistic Idealization 103
Narcissism and the Theater of the Absurd 106
The Theater of Everyday Life 110
Ironic Detachment as an Escape from Routine 115
No Exit 117
V The Degradation of Sport
The Spirit of Play versus the Rage for National Uplift 123
Huizinga on Homo Ludens 125
The Critique of Sport 127
The Trivialization of Athletics 132
Imperialism and the Cult of the Strenuous Life 134
Corporate Loyalty and Competition 138
Bureaucracy and "Teamwork" 143
Sports and the Entertainment Industry 144
Leisure as Escape 147
VI Schooling and the New Illiteracy
The Spread of Stupefaction 151
The Atrophy of Competence 154
Historical Origins of the Modern School System 157
From Industrial Discipline to Manpower Selection 159
From Americanization to "Life Adjustment" 162
Basic Education versus National Defense Education 166
The Civil Rights Movement and the Schools 169
Cultural Pluralism and the New Paternalism 172
The Rise of the Multiversity 174
Cultural "Elitism" and Its Critics 178
Education as a Commodity 180
VII The Socialization of Reproduction and the Collapse of Authority
The "Socialization of Workingmen" 185
The Juvenile Court 188
Parent Education 191
Permissiveness Reconsidered 194
The Cult of Authenticity 198
Psychological Repercussions of the "Transfer of Functions" 202
Narcissism, Schizophrenia, and the Family 203
Narcissism and the "Absent Father" 205
The Abdication of Authority and the Transformation of the Superego 209
The Family's Relation to Other Agencies of Social Control 214
Human Relations on the Job: The Factory as a Family 217
VIII The Flight from Feeling: Sociopsychology of the Sex War
The Trivialization of Personal Relations 224
The Battle of the Sexes: Its Social History 225
The Sexual "Revolution" 228
Togetherness 231
Feminism and the Intensification of Sexual Warfare 233
Strategies of Accommodation 235
The Castrating Woman of Male Fantasy 239
The Soul of Man and Woman under Socialism 243
IX The Shattered Faith in the Regeneration of Life
The Dread of Old Age 247
Narcissism and Old Age 249
The Social Theory of Aging: "Growth" as Planned Obsolescence 252
Prolongevity: The Biological Theory of Aging 255
X Paternalism Without Father
The New Rich and the Old 259
The Managerial and Professional Elite as a Ruling Class 263
Progressivism and the Rise of the New Paternalism 264
Liberal Criticism of the Welfare State 266
Bureaucratic Dependence and Narcissism 270
The Conservative Critique of Bureaucracy 275
Afterword: The Culture of Narcissism Revisited 281
Notes 297
Index 321
