The minimal self

1 June 1932 – 14 February 1994

In his wide-ranging books and essays, Mr. Lasch offered a leftist analysis of industrial capitalism and its effects on American politics, social arrangements, modes of thought and personal psychology. As a counterpoise to the alienation and despair he saw as pervasive in American life, he proposed a progressive program that, paradoxically, relied heavily on the values of community, family and self-discipline. Diagnosing a Malaise "The Culture of Narcissism"(W. W. Norton) is his best-known work. In the 1979 book, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for seven weeks, he described postwar America as a society of dangerously self-absorbed individuals, fixated on personal goals, fe…