Perpetual adolescence
Subtitle: Jungian analyses of American media, literature, and pop culture
By: edited by Sally Porterfield, Keith Polette, and Tita French Baumlin.
Contributors: Porterfield, Sally F.; Polette, Keith, 1954-; Baumlin, Tita French.
Publisher: State University of New York Press; SUNY Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9781438427997; 9781438428000
Subjects: Jung, C. G. -- 1875-1961; Adolescent psychology -- United States; Adolescence -- United States
Description: Arguing that American culture appeals to and is populated by children and adolescents who merely appear to be adult men and women, the essays in Perpetual Adolescence examine the Jungian archetype of the "eternal youth"--The puer aeternus--as it is manifested in the arrested development of American culture. From the infantilization of the American psyche and the lionization of teenaged celebrities and bodies, to fanatical conformity, and puerile entertainment, the contributors probe the various ways that American television, music, film, print, Internet, education, and social movements work to nourish and sustain this child archetype. Offering analytic psychology as an instrument of social analysis and critique, they point to the need for dialogue over the causes and effects of our puer-fixations, which have become, in large part, both a creation and a creator of the American zeitgeist. --From publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.