No American intellectual shaped the terms of post-1960s cultural criticism quite like Christopher Lasch. Heir to a dominant liberalism that promised all things to all peoples, he struck instead a pessimistic pose denouncing the noxious alchemy of capitalism, consumption, and the growing authority of the “therapeutic professions.” The subtitle of his surprising 1979 bestseller, The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, resonated with a premonitory power in a nation reeling from the successive shocks of Vietnam, Watergate, and economic downturn. Nestled uncomfortably between the buoyant promises of the Kennedy '60s and the Reagan '80s, the “Me Decade” gave every indication of portending a long era of decline. Those edgy days provoked from Lasch a series of demanding and controversial books that remain touchstones of modern social thought.
