Critical Theory, the Family and the Narcissistic Personality

Abstract

In the last chapter, I dealt in some detail with Adorno and Marcuse’s critique of culture for which they are renowned. In this chapter, I want to deal with Critical Theory’s less well-known views on the decline of the modern family and the kind of emergent ‘individual’ that is symptomatic of this trend. I shall illustrate Critical Theory’s claims by referring to the work of Christopher Lasch who also links changes happening at the level of culture with changes in family life. Lasch and Critical Theorists have been criticised by feminists and others for their patriarchal, backward-looking assumptions and for having a passive view of the subject. I shall argue that their concepts actually give us far greater purchase on modern family life than the vast array of new ones coined by authors such as Anthony Giddens.