Of course all that these young bourgeois really wanted was to be aristocrats. They bought titles, married into aristocratic families whenever they could. And it is one of the little jokes of history that they got mixed up in the Revolution, and helped to abolish the class which in fact they really wanted to join. If we are to understand contemporary narcissism and its relation to freedom, we must look at the cultural crisis out of which the narcissism was reborn. The 1960s were marked by pronounced rejections, especially on the part of young people: the rebellions against education as a factory, the strident protests of draft-age person against the automatic assumption that they could be sent off to be maimed in the swamps of Vietnam; the fairy-tale love of the flower children; the hippies, who camped together believing they needed nothing more than themselves; the vast number of young people who served all ties to their parents and took to the road. All of these movement in the 1960s can be seen as endeavors to gain freedom. Free from the assembly line of education, free from wars regarded as psychotic, free to enjoy pleasures of the flesh with no hindrance by the mores of the past or vague dreads of the future, free from the limits of space for those who donned knapsacks and set out hitchhiking to live on the road. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15

The faith was that everyone could be born anew in a secular sense. They were all Jay Gatsbys, not representing but rebelling against the Horatio Alger myth. I do not wish to burlesque the decade of the 1960s. Among the good things it did produce were highly valuable gains in race relations, the erasing of some of the barriers between adolescence and adulthood, and the new sharing of responsibility on college boards by students as well as faculty. However, the general feeling with which the decade of the 1960s left us was one of disappointment and disillusionment. Something important had been missing. Was it not that this freedom from past structure brought with it the assumption that all structure could be thrown to the winds? One’s own purity of heart would suffice for everything. One’s faith would move the mountains even of legislative passivity. The belief was the individual will is all powerful and totally determines one’s fate. There was no sense of responsibility to society, no acceptance of the inevitable, no sense f responsibility to society, no acceptance of the inevitable, no sense of a human destiny that could not be denied. The American tradition was that people believed that their whole destiny is in their own hands, and was acted out to the extreme in these movements of the 1960s. #RandolphHarris 2 of 15

 Americans believe they are in control of their destiny because they were born, often under another sky, placed in the middle of an always moving scene, themselves driven by the irresistible torrent which draws all about them, the American has no time to bond themselves to anything, they grow accustomed only to change, and end by regarding it as the natural state of mortals. One feels the need of it, more, one loved it; for the instability, instead of meaning disaster to one, seems to give birth only to miracles all about one. No one can exist long on disillusionment. There was visible a different kind of concern among the equivalent groups; The young people of the 1970s turned inward. They asked, logically enough: “Is it because of something lacking in ourselves that these movement failed? Since we cannot change the outside World as we wished, can we change the inner World?” Since the extrovert efforts proved more or less bankrupt, they now were replaced by introvert concerns. One felt the question in the 1970s—and we therapists heard it time and again: Can we find ourselves by means of some therapy for the inner person or with some new religion? #RandolphHarris 3 of 15

Many of those who has been leaders in the activist movement went directly into the introvert movements. It needs to be said, in defense of the new narcissism, that the threat of losing oneself was real—losing oneself to behaviorism, which was indefatigably preached in those years with strict doctrines that the self did not exist, that all behavior was simply a conglomeration of conditioning, and tat freedom was an illusion. The extent of the general culture’s acceptance of these ideas, partly to escape the pervasive fears of atomic warfare and internal chaos shown in society by the demonstrations and voices of the people. Or losing oneself to a technologized culture that was becoming a mechanical robot of our society. A significant minority retreated—some would say advanced—to another fort, the fort of oneself, in the hope that behind that stockade they could form the final line in defense not only of freedom but of their existence as human beings. The new narcissism was seen in the concerning statement: “I have a right to do what I wish with my own body.” This was the greatest tidal wave of self-awareness since the Freudian sexual revolution. People believed that they could find ways of living their lives freely and happily without feeling a responsibility to be involved in a society that was unfree. #RandolphHarris 4 of 15

Also, if you must give up your happiness for it, of what importance is society? If not in society, where did these people learn to speak? If not the society of their mothers, who protected them as an infant. Did they never attend society’s schools or the million and one things for which people join in society? That this me age is still alive is shown by all of these spiritual guide and gurus, who claim to be so balanced and entuned with nature, and promise others absolute happiness and to make them a winner 100 percent of the time, for only $120 an hour. However, who knows what spirit they are channeling into? Along with these came the mushrooming of self-help gurus and the endeavor to raise consciousness to the point where it would suffice not only to direct ourselves, but to insure that our sense of freedom will not be threatened by the vast mechanical pressures all about us. It is not surprising, then, that many believe “If I am me, I will be free.” His is the new narcissism, in the me decade. Everything is not becoming a possession: my neighborhood, my walk, my lunch, my DMV. It is significant that in psychotherapy, too, narcissism has become the dominant problem. It is recognized, from Dr. Freud on, that the completely narcissistic person is the most difficult to help in psychotherapy because the therapist can achieve no relationship. The client seems unable to break through one’s own self-enclosing fog. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15

Our whole society partakes in the culture of narcissism. The narcissistic person is liberated from the superstitions of the past, they doubt even the reality of their own existence and consider reality an illusion, although for most of us, the consequences are very real. Superficially relaxed and tolerant, one finds little use for strict doctrines of racial and ethnic purity but at the same time forfeits the security of group loyalties. Their attitudes toward pleasures of the flesh are permissive rather than puritanical, even though their emancipation from ancient taboos brings one no peace in pleasures of the flesh. Fiercely competitive in one’s demand for approval and acclaim, one distrusts competition because one associates it unconsciously with an unbridled urge to destroy. One extols cooperation and teamwork while harboring deeply antisocial impulses. One praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to oneself. Acquisitive in the sense that one’s cravings have no limits, one does not accumulate goods and provisions against the future, in the manner of the acquisitive individualist of nineteenth-century political economy, but demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire. #RandolphHarris 6 of 15

Nevertheless, psychoanalysis is a symptom of the whole development of modern culture, not simply an endeavor to correct its problems. One cannot understand society, unless they understand why people formed their deviations from society. Many people do not have symptoms, but are generally purposeless, aimless, empty, and complaining of boredom and a lack of commitment. That is why the reasons people come to the quest seeking God are widely different. If suffering brings man, joy brings others. If a kind of ambition brings not a few, satiety with ambition brings a few. Mortals come to this quest simply because they seek the truth, because they want to learn what their life means and what the Universe means and the relation of both, which is the best of all reason. However, others come because of shaken self-respect or after a bereavement which leaves them without a dearly loved one. Still others come in reaction to disillusionment, frustration, or calamity. And lastly there are those who come out of utter fatigue with the senseless World and disgust with its evil ways, which is the second of best of all reasons. Human lack, human sufferings, and human failures drive most of the people who come to it, to the quest as compensation. However, there are a few whose human circumstances are satisfactory, yet who come to the quest also. #RandolphHarris 7 of 15

Many are the seekers after truth, the explorers trying to find a higher consciousness. All classes are welcome, of course. We many come to this change of view by strict philosophical reflection alone, which is the easiest and pleasantest path, but which demands certain intellectual and moral capacities, or we may come to it by the path of bitter pain and external compulsion. Some people seem hungry for the truth. This is because society has staved them and given them no satisfaction other than a surface one. Some people are slowly brought to the quest by the inescapable conclusions of reason, others are brought into it more quickly by the natural guidance of instinct. For many people the Quest of truth begins with a feeling that something is missing from their life, a need that none of their possessions or relations can satisfy. Sometimes—do you lie awake at night? Thinking about what you might have been? Watching the procession of your past life move like a cinema film before your eyes? Reading anew the whole tale of time born and dead, a few joys, many tears perhaps, and long barren years of drought? Waiting for something bigger, better, brighter to turn up? But it has no come yet. The road is hard and the field you are trilling is sterile. Many people are also looking to find people on the path who are not willing to comprise their values for cookies, chips, or money. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15

Among those who come to the quest for reasons other than the search for truth, which usually means for emotional reason, there are those who come to it at the end of a period of mental depression and those who come at the beginning of a period of mental elation. The first kind may be unhappy because of past personal experiences and seek comfort, consolation. The second kind is prone to exaggerated hopes because of somewhat neurotic enthusiastic temperament. The one may find its peace and the other its joy but both may overlook the need for determined work and self-discipline as the cost. Few people come to this quest by choice; most come by necessity. Its invitation, addressed to a reluctant World, is heard and considered only when under great pressure and suffering, or after great moral or mental or aesthetic growth. Some propulsive force from within or some compulsive condition from without must come into existence to make one undergo the self-discipline needed to open one to the divine influx. With this event a new era opens in one’s personal life. One feels that, for the first time in one’s life, one has touched real being when hitherto one has known only its shadow. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15

Consequently it is in reality the most important one. Whoever once gives one’s allegiance to God as affirmed and symbolized by one’s entry on the quest, undertakes a commitment of whose ultimate and tremendous consequences one has but a vague and partial notion. When God sounds the spiritual note, its echo is heard within the mortal and one awakens from spiritual stupor. However the history of the individual and that of the human race may diverge in other respect, they agree in this at least: both signify a progressive increase the quest for truth. Regarding the history of the race this is often doubted. People point out that successive cultures begin with a primitive stage that is colored differently but always has essentially the same structure, involving a small World of objects; and this it is the life of each individual culture and not that of the race that is held to correspond to the life of the individual. However, if we disregard those cultures that seem to be isolated, we find that those that are under the historical influence of others take over their rational World at a certain stage that is not so early but precedes the great age—sometimes by immediately accepting it from a culture that is still contemporary, as did the Greeks from the Egyptians; at other times indirectly from a past culture, as Occidental Christendom accepted the Greek rational World. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15

They enlarge their rational World not only through their own experience but also be accepting alien influences, and it is only then that the rational World which has grown in this way experiences its crucial expansion which involves discovery. (Let us ignore for the moment the overwhelming share in this development of the vision and deeds of the personal World). Generally, it rational World of every culture is therefore more comprehensive than that of its predecessors, and in spite of some stoppages and apparent regressions the progressive increase of the rational World is clearly discernible in history. It is not essential in this connection whether the World of a culture should be characterized more as finite or whether we should attribute to it so-called infinity or, more correctly speaking, non-finitude: a finite World may very well contain more components, things, and processes than an infinite one. It should also be noted that we must compare not only the extent of their knowledge of nature but also that of their social differentiation and their technical achievement because both expand the World of objects. The basic relation of mortals to the rational World includes experience, which constitutes this World ever again, and use, which leads it toward its multifarious purpose—the preservation, alleviation, and equipment of human life. #RandolphHarris 11 of 15

With the extent of the rational World the capacity for experiencing and using it must also increase. To be sure, the individual can replace direct experience more and more with indirect experience, the acquisition of information; and one can abbreviate use more and more until it becomes specialized utilization: a continual improvement of capacity from generation to generation is nevertheless indispensable. When people speak of a progressive development of the life of the spirit of God, this is what is usually meant. This certainly involves the real linguistic sin against the spirit; for this life of the spirit is usually the obstacle that keeps mortals from living in their spirit of God, and at best it is only the matter than has to be mastered and formed before it can be incorporated. The obstacle: for the improvement of the capacity for experience and use generally involves a decrease in mortal’s power to relate—that power which alone can enable mortal to live in the spirit of God. What is more miserable than uncertainty! Take away assertations and you take away Christianity. It is not the character of the Christian mind to avoid assertions. Jesus makes assertions with a certainty and an unshaken confidence about the truth of their message, which is often hard to stand and harder to understand for the modern mind. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15

Even if we, or an Angel from Heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let one be accursed. Do we approach Christianity as just another possibility among so many others? As, perhaps, a probability, but by no means a certainty? There is sometimes a defeat in our hearts, in our lives, in the depths of our souls. Sometimes people can preach a distorted gospel because they are not sure of themselves and one is not even sure of angelic visions. However, one is sure of the gospel, so sure that one places oneself and the highest spiritual powers under the threat of a divine curse if one or someone else should distort the gospel. The gospel is a description of our situation before God which runs through the whole Bible and the confessions of all the great Christian witnesses. It is our certainty, but it is lost the moment we begin to regard it as our certainty, but it is lost the moment we begin to regard it as our certainty. We are certain only as long as we look at then content of our certainty and not the rational or irrational experiences in which we have received it. Looking at ourselves and our certainty as ours, we discover its weakness, its vulnerability to ever critical thought; we discover the small amount of probability which our reasoning can give to the idea of God and to the reality of the Christ. We discover the contradictions in the emotional side of our religious life, its oscillation between ecstatic confidence and despairing doubt. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15

However, looking at God, we realize that all the shortcomings of our experience are of no importance. Looking at God, we see that we do not have God as an object of our knowledge, but that God has us as the subject of our existence. Looking at God we feel that we cannot escape him even by making him an object of sceptical arguments or of irresistible emotions. We realize that in our uncertainty there is one fixed point of certainty, however we may name it and describe it and explain it. We may not comprehend, but we are comprehended. We may not grasp anything in the depth of our uncertainty, but that we are grasped by something ultimate, which keeps us in its grasp and form which we may strive in vain to escape, remains absolutely certain. By assertion, I mean a constant adhering, affirming, defending and invincibly persevering. This certainty is not something everyone possesses as one’s own. Nobody has experienced the profundity of doubt more than some religious scholars. The possible arguments for religious truth and all confidence in the vocation as a reformer, in one’s religious strength and one’s accumulated experience comes when we see at last that the mind has gathered from its schooling the information it needs and hungers for and even more deeply is revelation. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15

Sometimes in the worst of all Hells, First Commandment, “I am the Lord, thy God,” comes to our minds, we know that one certainly has not left us, and this is the only one which is ultimately needed. Can we maintain this certainty in spite of the fundamental uncertainties which are the character of our period in religion as well as in all other realms of life? Can we maintain it in spite of our personal doubts and despairs and of our sceptical heritage? The answers to these questions does not depend on us. We can attain the certainty of the Reformers and Apostles whenever it is given to us to touch the Ground of our existence and to look beyond ourselves. When we have left behind all objective probabilities about God and the Christ, when all preliminary certainties have disappeared, the ultimate certainty may appear to us. And in the power of this certainty, though never secure and never without temptation, we may walk from certainty to certainty. The faintest clue or hint from God is enough; how much more the fullness of a glimpse it is to see the radiance of God, and it draws everyone to you. It is there even when you are angry, or discouraged. If you could see God in yourself, hear it in your own voice, you would not see darkness. You would see an illumination that is all your own. Somber, at times, but light and beauty come together in you in a thousand different patterns. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15