ON THE AMBIGUITIES OF A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM

This article is devoted to an analysis of three sets of ambiguities underlying sociological analyses of the new culture of narcissism. The first set concerns the differential importance of childhood experiences and the contradictory cultural norms that regulate the placement of the adult self in time and space. The second set concerns the problem of whether these contradictions result from the structural characteristics of post‐industrial societies or, alternatively, from the transition from a system of stratification based on production skills to one based on consumption patterns. Because we argue that narcissism is produced by such a transition and by concomitant anomic processes, the third set concerns the universal, unintentional and invarant properties attributed to sociopsychological responses to anomie. Examination of these ambiguities enables us to specify the additional analyses needed for a sociological understanding of narcissism, as well as the methodologies that such analyses require.