Narcissism in cultural theory: Perspectives on Christopher Lasch, Richard Sennett, and Robert Pfaller

Abstract For several decades, the concept of narcissism has been used to criticize society and culture(s). This paper discusses the achievements and limits of such approaches. In a first step, it sketches controversies within psychoanalysis around the notion of narcissism itself. It then proposes a categorization of cultural theories that draw on narcissism in general. The main part of the paper deals with three exemplary theories: Christopher Lasch’s The culture of narcissism; Richard Sennett’s The fall of public man, and the philosophy of Robert Pfaller. A detailed analysis shows that theories which try to establish causal connections between society and the occurrence of personality disorders usually fail to explicate this connection in a satisfactory way. Theories that criticize society because it supposedly fosters narcissistic personalities prove to be unconvincing. Approaches that use the notion of narcissism in a broader, metaphorical sense, however, have the potential to cast a new light on certain developments in culture.