The Culture of Narcissism:
Shea, George W.
on the way to the polls to cancel out each ager, and some other worthy who I keep -THEOLOGY other's vote"; "My...
...Box 189, Clarkston, Michigan • i• nevitable that any valid diagnosis in- 48016 • clude an explanation of even the most (313) 625-5611 City, State, Zip S • obvious symptoms...
...Still, it is depressing...
...Napected...
...Educa- JESUS...
...Sheed, Sheed than three times...
...even in the documents of Vatican II...
...When we get to Indeed...
...He finds this lacuna Married Priests relations between these...
...or whether ture...
...Christ is in ian, Dept...
...Write Guardnot about signs of life in our country, but Sheed is absolutely right...
...His analysis of the a conformist or 'other-directed' type...
...question is whether Lasch's frame of refmourn, and a lurking fear of aging and Thus, in the world of work, according to erence, Freudian theory, and his controldeath...
...on the way to the polls to cancel out each ager, and some other worthy who I keep -THEOLOGY other's vote...
...Mary's Student Chapel, macy of moral authority, who still enjoy we ask ourselves what our silence about 331 Thompson, Ann Arbor, Michigan, good sports, good sex, and perhaps, Christ means at this time when the ex48104...
...Until he does, readers will be well ad- the centrality of Christ as life-source of Tax Shelter vised to take up the present volume...
...The nar- ROBERT PHIUjPs's books include The Conlishing Co...
...The treatment 48501...
...The more critical I 13 April 1979: 221 hypothesis may inevitably make his vis- the Christian perspective...
...COM, 33 W 17, NYC 10011...
...attempts to validate his self image fail, he Send a detailed resume and cover in Manhattan...
...lishing Co...
...Christ- infected themselves, hasten the process opher Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism by which narcissistic behavior becomes is the latest addition to the "what's the most attractive strategy for dealing The National Catholic Reporter Pub- wrong with us" bibliography...
...Finally, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233 peared in our land, we have been treated institutions which shape personality, almost annually to book-length diag- families, schools and the media, once noses of our nation's maladies...
...and religious the dirty dishes...
...In sev- pend on a corps of experts and advertisers of twelve books including the bestseleral of these chapters a single theme, the to tell them how to raise their offspring...
...I would like to work out some such least-appreciated artists...
...When his versity's Lincoln Center Liberal Arts College one to join the team...
...sexuality of our narcissistic age is utterly THE VIKING PRESS She remains a loner, dependent on others pessimistic...
...is most disappointing...
...Riepe, 1401 Hollingsworth book in which he will not only diagnose, a summa cum laude for his unflagging Road, Joppa, Md...
...Some of his perceptions are quite Week also available...
...ler: AM I RUNNING WITH YOU, And the schools are no better off...
...Full hope are...
...Commonweal: 222...
...led to the dead-end of narcissistic preoc- Since the Reformation, Christians have Situation Wanted cupation with self...
...Lasch seems to away as India, he has discovered many Chicago, 60690...
...obviously not original...
...Quite naturally, then, the narcissist overshadows results...
...Holy Saturday...
...Introducmits in his introduction that he is writing tory offer 6wks-$1...
...E\~'IIIIIIII wish to be well liked...
...In Lasch's own commercialism, by the emphasis placed words, "She too sells herself for a living, on spectacle and on super-stars with but her seductiveness hardly signifies a whom the spectators need to identify...
...Parents, he tells us, are delib- Season, featuring MALCOLM BOYD, examines various human activities and erately kept in a state of anxiety about Episcopal Priest, leader in the Civil Rights, Peace and Gay Rights Movethe manifestations of narcissistic behav- child-rearing, and are thus forced to dements of the '60s and '70s and author ior that now characterizes them...
...Box 2649, not entirely out of place...
...of the church since Vatican II...
...Americans who still value achievement any needs they are aware of in them- Opening Summer or Fall...
...NCR has and to experience intense feelings of GEORGE W SHEA is Dean of Fordham Unitalented people and is looking for some- emptiness and inauthenticity...
...BIBLICAL THEOLOGY HISTORICAL THEOLOGY Full of ourselves SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY THEOLOGICAL ETHICS THEOLOGY AND SOCIETY THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM der of our age, replacing the hysterical FINANCIAL AID Christopher Lasch and obsessive neuroses more common at AVAILABLE the turn of the century...
...Classified payable with order...
...In politics, spectacle insights into our society's ills...
...His new collection of poems, The ing, and explaining the changes in, the live in a thinly populated psychic world Pregnant Man, has just been published by liturgy, education and sacramental rites Doubleday...
...telephone: but make a prognosis, or even prescribe...
...Send resume care of Search Committee, St...
...Shelter 20% plus of Church income from of our nation's health...
...Box 281, It is Lasch's belief that narcisssism has Relations of the National Conference of Kansas City, MO 64141...
...efforts to direct our minds and hearts to 301-877-8118...
...become the predominant psychic disorConunonweal: 220 and lasting relationships, an inability to eclipse of reality by illusion, recurs...
...u r r: a r'IU't ger1e'a:Iy The fact that she lives in a milieu of In some areas Lasch draws even :,r- n(J, traal,ed interpersonal relations does not make her 1,11 injustice grimmer conclusions...
...The title, FISCHER, DALEY, STENDAHL...
...Assistantships In other words, according to Lasch, our Write: GIVEN Americans' fascination with culture both elicits narcissistic behavior THEOLOGY DEPARTMENT Charles L. Coughlin Hall diagnosis, medical, psychological from its members and advances those and even automotive, it is not surprising with marked narcissistic traits to posiMU Univ&stte versity that, as signs of social illness have ap- tions of prominence and power...
...The narcissistic personality is Lasch, the illusion of achievement and ling hypothesis, the pervasiveness of marked as well by the belief that history success is more important than real ac- narcissism in our society, leads to deeper is irrelevant and that society has no fu- complishment...
...in Religious Studies posed of a preacher, a picture-show man- the form...
...of moral authority fades, as the super-ego although Lasch's framework and For Lasch, Arthur Miller's Willy fades in the narcissistic individual, and is Loman symbolizes the postwar personal- replaced by a feverish effort to conform ity, with its need to be well liked...
...Anyone who has b• een paying attention to America during For details and registration call or N• ame write: the past two decades is aware of an alarm- Ronald Streitz, Jr.-Associate Director Addres • i• ng growth of ego...
...Given the Freud- is crisp, lucid, broad-gauged, though I ian context, this is perhaps to be ex- was surprised to find so global a traveler READ THE GUARDIAN, America's #1 giving short shrift to social justice and independent Marxist newsweekly...
...He simply urges that available...
...If he wrote good novels, I'd graduate theology for lay men and women, clergy steward on the airplane what he did with be worried about the church...
...but it is, after all, P.O...
...Much of its Press) and Aspects ofA lice, recently re-issued growth has come from expansion into created to mask his disappointment with cassettes and printed material support- both self and others, forces him in fact to by Vintage...
...Her last collecChristian traditions arrangement...
...O'Connor's salt-free diet tastes charming that Cardinal Spellman writes Since 1961 - Pioneering in just like "stewed Kleenex...
...Catholic Church Personnel Group Benefit Trust, 1307 South Wabash RATES: 70c a word, one time...
...Tuition Scholarships us, is a reflection of the tensions and Teaching/Research 'George W. Shea anxieties produced by our social system...
...federal/state income taxes...
...She a basic contradiction which promises exploits the ethic of pleasure which has them liberation from the role of victim `O~h!BIp, ~ GOOD FRIDAY replaced the ethic of achievement, but and shrew only to force them to act as AND her career, more than any other, reminds shrews in their daily dealings with men...
...21085...
...I asked the bad novels...
...Quite logically, narcissistic traits is a chilling one: supera capable, hardworking and productive ficial charm, pseudo-awareness, sexual marketing specialist who preferably has therefore, he begins his study with a consome knowledge of, and interest in, the sideration of the narcissistic personality...
...Nevertheless, one been quarreling about ecclesiology rather CATHOLIC PRIEST, 45, ten years' exwould have liked some indication, be- than reading up on Christology, and perience as head of a 900-pupil, Catholic yond the vague reference to "com- ecumenical time is needed to bring our co-educational, independent, secondary munities of competence" in his final Christian vision back into focus...
...9% interest Classified also tax-free...
...He sees women as caught in ~ . tJrn r fJ 1 lips,',' only as a hawk depends on chickens...
...off," in'thai they lead us to see hidden of Christ from Christian life as main symptoms, deeper malignancies and new motivating force...
...And treme right is denouncing change as it is not unlikely that our hope should be heresy while the extreme left sneers at Publications placed in them rather than in the diagnos- what smacks of the traditional...
...We are a five rather than illusion, who still believe in selves...
...in Theology Ph.D...
...letter, with salary expectations, to falls into a depression characterized by FATHER JOHN B. SHEERIN, C.S.P., is a Arthur Jones, Editor and Publisher, Na- frustration and rage...
...has an opening for a marketing some disturbing things to say about our Having established the psychological specialist...
...One can't help sus- ramentally "but do not in fact find him pastoral team at the Catholic Chapel of pecting, however, that there are many very interesting, or his message meeting the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor...
...was pastoral, not theological or devo- curriculum vitae on request...
...chapter is an examination, not of con- LESS CULTURE $3.00 postpaid...
...is a 15-year-old and growing cissist's inflated self image, initially fessional Poets (Southern Illinois University multimedia publishing house...
...The company is looking for our society's malaise...
...We have a fine new lit- tion of stories, Everything That Rises PROGRAMS erature commission in this state, com- Must Converge, contains true classics of M.A...
...This, Lasch tells Norton, $11.95, 268 pp...
...It seems to me that, stream...
...Write for details or call 609-693a restoration of the primacy of Jesus in 05401, June 17-22, MEIER, NEWMAN, 5558...
...His list of or-ad layout...
...Madison Ave., NYC 10016...
...and most recently, his candid t• o subscribe tion for adjustment, so attractive to the autobiography, published by Doubleday: TAKE OFF THE MASKS...
...will lead a weekend exploring "CommuIn this study of Christian life and prac- nity, Sanity and Survival" at Murray tice, Frank Sheed returns to a theme Biblical Institute Grove, Lanoka Harbor, N.J...
...Job description abandoned hope or a belief in the legiti- not argue his point...
...The successful applicant will cultural and political health...
...COMMONWEAL, 232 PHIL BERRIGAN and LIZ McCALLISTER Andrews and McMeel, $8.95, 158 pp...
...At CORPUS-National Association ReSome negative criticism is, however, home and even on his lecture tours as far signed/Married Priests...
...08734, April found in many of his writings, the need of TRINITY COLLEGE, Burlington, Vermont 20-22...
...and it has with modern life...
...tional, international coverage...
...monthly in advance for more Workshop CHRIST IN ECLIPSE, by F.J...
...63c, six times...
...once did...
...Each CHRISTIAN PARENTS AND CHRISTticians...
...Even radical pro- these are merely used as fashionable conis unable to identify with posterity or to test becomes merely a form of self- tainers into which the author's percepsee himself as part of an historical dramatization...
...promiscuity, hypochondria, avoidance post-Vatican II U.S...
...Catholic church...
...0One year, $20 What are we to make of Lasch's diagAdditional accommodations for Holy [] I1-issue trial, $7.5Q nosis...
...She craves admira- And so games themselves are transtion, but scorns those who provide it and formed...
...Lasch adproblems of the Third World...
...Preion a partial one, they nevertheless "pay Christ in Eclipse, connotes the absence registration necessary...
...Catholic Bishops in Washington...
...s• imply complete this coupon narcissistic mentality, creates according to Lasch, a stupefied citizenry, so in- A unique opportunity for dialogue and COMMONWEAL celebration with one of America's outcapacitated that it cannot perform the 232 Madison Ave., standing religious leaders, begining at New York, N. Y. 10016 most routine actions and tasks without a 7:00 p.m...
...At any rate, Frank Sheed deserves Reverend C.K...
...Buy this book, for rare insight Building an American Chicago, he says, we push them down a into one of our rarest, and in her time, Catholic theology in dialogue with the mayor slot...
...Write: Director...
...base of his thesis, Lasch proceeds in his have demonstrable experience in at least earlier chapters to describe the narcissis= two of the following: direct mail market- As the title of his'book suggests, Lasch ing/advertising/copywriting/brochure- believes that narcissism lies at the root of tic personality of our time...
...Good Friday and closing at textbook...
...It the Christian religion...
...about a culture which is dying, which has eclipse, and has been for a few centuries...
...Lasch will write another tional...
...My mama got her hand thinking must or should be the warden at AT caught in the electric mixer but both sur- the state penitentiary...
...NaIt is when one raises the question of science but of our consciousness of what tional Periodical Library, Box 47, Flint, MI hope and of the future that Lasch's book Christ really means to us...
...but the to some socially acceptable idea of norsymbol of the narcissistic '70s is not the malcy...
...66c, three Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60605...
...4:00 p.m...
...and, "I think it's MARQUETTE vived...
...suffer from the intellectuals' fallacy, the genuinely committed Christians, belief that all Americans are just like the Catholic and Protestant, who admire Pastoral Team faculties or editorial staffs on which they Christ, accept him doctrinally and sac- PRIEST wanted to be a member of the themselves work...
...She attempts to move either players or spectators, as games ril,rro' of capital others while remaining unmoved herself...
...No longer played with abandon, '{11I1eei'I thus derives little gratification from her they lose their ability to raise the spirits of v!I t)S'enSib'Y social success...
...In the family, the notion tions are then forced...
...member team in service to University stuhistory and posterity, who have not In this particular volume, Sheed does dents, faculty and staff...
...In brief times...
...has much of value to say about the state JOHN B. SHEERIN PRIESTS AND LAY PERSONNEL...
...member of the Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish tional Catholic Reporter, P.O...
...Address: Perhaps Mr...
...Vatican school, available June 1, 1979 for pnncichapter, of what the new signs of life and II did not achieve it because its purpose palship or other adminitrative post...
...Even sports become trivialized by salesman but the hooker...
...year-$17...
...tion which renders images of the real self REVIEWERS The National Catholic Reporter Pub- and of others weak and empty...
...COLOMBIERE CENTER is privileged form of mutual exploitation...
...rarely, even good work and politics...
...HOLY SATURDAY us that contemporary hedonism, of The narcissistic male, on the other hand, enteR WITH which she is the supreme symbol, origi- wanting sex but fearful of dependence r(.rw:P* MAICOLM BOYD nates not in the pursuit of pleasure but in and of lasting relationships, is unable to the war of all against all, in which even provide either the stimulation or tender- APRIL 13-14, 1979 the most intimate encounters become a ness his partner desires...
...Drawing from both Freud and later writ- of both competition and dependence, Knowledge of pricing, a strong under- shallowness, the inability to form deep standing of production schedules, a flair ers on the subject, he describes the narfor design, an ability to work closely with cissistic personality as one dominated by those whose products are being mar- a grandiose conception of self, a concepketed, a capacity for leadership and supervision, would be plusses...
...Grimmest of all is Lasch's treatment of to announce an event for the Easter In the later chapters of his book Lasch education...
Vol. 106 • April 1979 • No. 7
