Talk:Christopher Lasch/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Works

I wouldn't say Lasch's "Signature Argument" was the untenability of radicalism...if anything he was far more concerned with the fact that conservatives had become far less skeptical of the free market's effects on culture and family life. I always got the impression that his most significant contribution came from Culture of Narcissism, in which he argued that cultural circumstances could give entire populations a tendency towards a particular personality disorder, when it was previously assumed that this occurred on an individual basis due to personalized events. I can't think of how to edit the page, though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.219.210.231 (talk) 01:14, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Cultures are demented in various ways. Lasch considered narcissism to be the core ungodliness in modern Western culture. Miller's recent biography is published as a religious title, and is almost completely available at Google books - I added a couple of links to it in the article. How to dis-ungodly society whilst keeping so-called God out of things - that's a tough one. - 12.69.99.122 (talk) 20:19, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Additional Sources

VOICES: The Culture of Narcissism - Modernity and Its Discontents.

Does anyone know if the interview by Michael Ignatieff of Christopher Lasch and Cornelius Castoriadis from 1986 is available online? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.111.37.62 (talk) 14:11, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't know how complete it is, but for now it looks like there is a newspaper article covering this interview available as a (roughly scanned but readable) pdf file here: http://www.magmaweb.fr/spip/IMG/pdf_CC-Lasch-BBC.pdf Praghmatic (talk) 18:21, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Adding information from new biography

Eric Miller's recently published bio of Lasch is cited on this page but as yet hasn't made much impact on the -- generally very good, albeit short -- text as it now stands. The bio does indeed reflect some of the sense of Lasch's early precocity as is described in the section written by a childhood friend and removed to this talk page. I'll be starting work to expand this page, using Miller as a primary source plus a few others. Praghmatic (talk) 17:57, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

removed from article

His youth

He was one of my best friends during our ages of about 10 to 14 and then again in our early 20's. I knew him as Kit, not Christopher. He was a very talented baseball player. When I first knew him at about age 10, Kit had already written and scored for a full orchestra an opera named Rumplestiltskin. And it was truly scored for a full orchestra. Kit was an excellent violinist but he was an incredibly good baseball player. He and I lived between the towns of Barrington and Wauconda, Illinois about 40 miles northwest of Chicago. His family lived in a subdivision on a small lake and they owned a canoe which Kit and I sank repeatedly.

When my family moved to St. Louis I discovered that Kit's family had also moved there. We were in our 20's then and had completed our undergraduate years in college. At this point our friendship involved almost endless games of "roofball" which involved throwing a soft rubber ball up onto his family's long small-sloped roof and trying to throw it so noiselessly that the other player would have no idea of where it would land.

Kit was a delightful and cheerful human being and I wanted to share this small bit about him just to offset the sometimes dour copy that is written about him.

By User:Martinj918

Martin, thank you for the wonderful information. Much of it cannot be used however because of the Wikipedia policy of no original research. If any of that information appears in a biography, we can use it, as long as we can provide citations. Cheers, Kingturtle (talk) 03:23, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Update: the new bio of Lasch documents his childhood creation of operas, as well as books about politics, and his wit and warmth with family and friends, though the biographer seems to disagree about the level of his skill at baseball. Praghmatic (talk) 18:36, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

General/tone

I added a note qualifying the statement about Lasch's alleged anti-feminism. It may be taken as biased, but I thought there needed to be something to balance the quote--especially since there's so little else in the article.

Maybe Lasch isn't a big name anymore, but the article is totally inadequate. There is next to no mention of the best-selling Culture of Narcissism; his supposed authorship of Jimmy Carter's "malaise speech;" his involved critiques of both the New Left and neo-conservatism; indeed, hardly anything aside from a very hostile characterization by Susan Faludi.--WadeMcR 22:50, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

As someone who knows little about Lasch but is interested in learning more, I think that it would be great if you made the additions you mentioned to the article. Euchrid 02:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I deleted the external link. Objectively, I think it was fairly biased and poorly researched, referring to an ideological opposition to capitalism and consumerism as "classically leftist" and spouting off other such nonsense. See George Grant's Red Toryism for further information.

There's a serious NPOV problem in the statement that "In fact in many respects Lasch can be considered an anti American." This is an absurd and vague generalization and is offered without any citation. If any significant critic of Lasch called him "anti-American," that can be cited with the critic named. Otherwise this is a pretty classic violation of NPOV. And I heartily second all those who've noted the general inadequacy of this article.--BenA 15:08, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Ok, who wrote this article. It is really biased. Calling Lasch a "paleoconservative or even a reactionary" and an anti-feminist. Did you even read or understand any of his writings?--Vedvyas 16:41, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

This is because everything that doesn't agree with the current politically correct standards, is branded reactionary. In fact, Lasch provides an intense internal critique on the left, and prefigures a return to the old populist American left, before the Progressive Era, which was succumbed to the ideology of progress that Lasch thoroughly criticized. Finally, someone who considers Martin Luther King as one of the most important figures of contemporary America, is hardly a reactionary. Lasch belongs to the populist school of thought. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.96.150.246 (talk) 17:34, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

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Basic thesis of the family

This page cites Lasch's basic premise on family dynamics as something among the lines of government centralization and economic alienation have robbed the father figure of his power. Has anyone read Lasch's work in depth enough to challenge this point? This long passage of New Radicalism to me doesn't really serve the purpose of the article, or at the very least this particular section on paternalism... it feels over-broad; as if this point either isn't a thesis or a thesis other Neo-Marxists have made.

This quote really should be replaced. Again, I've not read enough of his work to offer a better passage, but I imagine one of you have and could offer suggestions. ⁂ (talk) 13:15, 27 February 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

Christopher Lasch.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:21, 7 March 2019 (UTC)