CHRISTOPHER LASCH
13
mental health industry and the helping professions; but it also
reflects the psychic needs of modern society itself. The fear and
rejection of parenthood, the tendency to view the family as nothing
more than marriage, and the perception ofmarriage as merely one in a
series of "non-binding commitments," express waning confidence in
the public order and growing doubts, by no means unjustified by the
course of historical events, in the ability of society's rulers to rule.
Claiming to represent the future, the ideology of interpersonal rela–
tions regards the future with dread; it represents the final dissolution
of bourgeois optimism and self-confidence .
In order to understand the psychic needs to which the new
therapeutic view of the world corresponds, we need to return to the
subject of socialization, as transformed by the "socialization" of
reproduction. Briefly , the socialization of reproduction has weakened
not only the father 's position but the mother's as well . Instead of
imposing their own standards of right and wrong, now thoroughly
confused, parents influenced by psychiatry and the doctrines of
progressive education seek to understand the peculiar needs of the
young and to avoid painful confrontations. Instead of guiding the
child, the older generation struggles to "keep up with the kids,"
co
master their incomprehensible jargon, and even to imitate their dress
and manners in the hope of preserving a youthful appearance and
outlook.
Under these conditions, children grow up without forming
strong identifications with their parents, formerly the psychological
basis of such autonomy as human beings attained. Lacking these
introjects, the child becomes an "other-directed" -or better, a
narcissistic-adult, an adult more concerned with his own pleasure
and the approval of others than with leaving his mark on the world.
The ease with which he escapes emotional entanglements with the
older generation leaves him with a feeling not of liberation but of
inner emptiness. Young people today often reproach their parents
with indifference or neglect, and many of them seek warmth and
security in submission to spiritual healers, gurus, and prophets of
political or psychic transformation.
Permissive styles of childrearing , instead of encouraging self–
reliance and autonomy, as might have been expected, appear instead
to
intensify the appetite for dependence. The only alternative to the
