RICHARD SENNETT
347
as a consequence it prompted attempts at repression and self-discipline
which were in fact of the most destructive sort. Eroticism and repression:
these two psychological phenomena dominated the capitalist bourgeoisie
in its ftrst epoch of domination in Western society.
What has occurred in the present century is that we have overturned
the eroticism of that world, hoping to escape from its repressiveness , in such
a way that we have substituted a new slavery for the old. We have desocial–
ized physical love, turning eroticism into the more isolated and inward
terms of sexuality. But this change is not so much a contrast as it is a form
of continuity with the Victorian situation . The desocializing of physical love
which has taken place in the present century is a result of carrying to an
extreme the Victorian's ftrst principle , the principle of personality imma–
nent in appearances.
Now it is a truism that Americans and American culture tend to be
personalistic in their view of social relations . Aspects of class, race, and
history are easily abandoned in favor of explanations of events which center
on the character and motivation of the participants involved . But the Amer–
ican viewpoint represents a psychological vision of society which is taking
hold in Western Europe in the present century as well . Think, for instance,
of how Left leaders in England, France, and West Germany are spoken of
as " legitimate" or " credible." Such judgments are based not so much on
the leader's ideological purity or coherence as on his ability to appeal per–
sonally and so to command the votes of those who do not share his left-wing–
ideas. Or think of the increasing tendency of people in the upper working
classes and the new
classes moyennes
to view their positions in society as
simply the result (or failure) of their personal abilities. This personalizing
of class occurs even though people may understand in the abstract that their
positions result from the blind workings of advanced capitalism.
To view one's experience in the world as a consequence or mirror of
one's personality is narcissism. By this is not meant love of self, but more
precisely the tendency to regard the world as a mirror of self. When person–
ality is believed to be causally at work in all human experiences, the world
will soon seem to be only a mirror of the self. At this point, the idea of
Gemeinschaft
acquires its absolutist, moralistic form: if people are not
revealing their inner feelings to others, they are not being "for real." As the
principle of immanent personality appearing in the nineteenth century has
expanded its hold upon people's minds to such an extent that all appear–
ances in society seem real only as manifestations of personality and personal
feelings, narcissism has been mobilized as a cultural condition. Narcissism
has become the norm, the code of meaning.
