The World as a Mirror

Abstract

This chapter revisits the intellectual debate about national decline in America at the end of the 1970s, with special reference to the claim made by historian Christopher Lasch that the nation had degenerated into a “culture of narcissism.” Lasch attributed this culture to the decline of paternal authority within the family, as the sphere of personal life was slowly eroded by the welfare state, the mass media, peer groups, and cults of expertise. In his 1978 book, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, Lasch argued that the decline of paternal authority—which was evident in the African American family—had extended to the middle class and probably resulted in an irreparable malaise in American society and culture. The chapter examines the way the concept of cultural narcissism was incorporated into President Jimmy Carter's “Crisis of Confidence” speech in July 1979.