The Minimal Self (Paperback)

by Christopher Lasch (Author) "Materialism and Mass Culture Denunciation of American "materialism" has a long history, but recent events have given it new urgency..." (more)
Key Phrases: minimalist sensibility, survival mentality, success manuals, Des Pres, World War, Hannah Arendt (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. (November 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393302636
• ISBN-13: 978-0393302639
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #407,015 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Genuinely Great Mind, May 8, 2003

By A Customer

Lasch has a great intellect: he's read deeply and though he's strong-minded, he's also compassionate. Here he examines faulty ideas, often finding the grain of truth that's given them wing. In THE MINIMAL SELF, still deeply relevant to our times, he explains two urges in light of man's destructiveness and our lack of faith in a future: a regressive, narcissistic wish to merge with the environment, in a timeless solipsism that negates the past and the present; or else, a strict adherence to rules and regulations that demand obedience by threat of punishment and retribution, and which harken back to false nostalgia for a simpler past.

Lasch shows us that it's much more complicated than that: that our obsession with survival, our lack of faith in language to communicate commonalities (and its exploitation not just by the media but by activists trying to counter the media's insidious influence), and our confusion about how to structure, or de-structure (destroy) our lives leads us back to Freud, back to humility, and back to separation, away from narcissistic fantasies of either merger or omnipotence.

In brilliant, thoughtful, complex prose, Lasch argues for an enlightened dependence, a reliance on the cultural sphere to give meaning to our inner drives and our recognition of the objective outside world, and thoughtfulness and sobriety in place of infantilism and fantasy. Lasch argues for mature play, and his is a convincing argument.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of the book The Minimal Self by Christopher Lasch, January 19, 2002

By	Frank Werner (New York USA) - See all my reviews

This book written back the middle of the 1980s is another one of a series of pessimistic,broad-reaching cultural studies written by Christopher Lasch. It is a follow-up to the more well known and influential work "The Culture of Narcissism".Mr. Lasch describes the emptiness and bleakness that he sees as a hallmark feature of the arts, of politics and society in thelate 20th century. Although one could disagree with his opinions, I think that this a well written indictment of modern times.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Minimal Self, July 1, 2009

By	M. McKasson Morgan - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is disturbing and insightful. Though written in the 80s, this social/psychological/political/aesthetic critique describes today's disconnect between self and society: the lack of humanisitic glue; the sad (and secret) nihilism of religions that can no longer keep the genie of destruction corked up; the merging of mass culture with mass destruction. Just as it must've been two decades ago, the book is an amazing wake up call. My copy, however, was in poor shape. The binding is upside down and the pages are falling out.