Perpetual Adolescence
Jungian Analyses of American Media, Literature, and Pop Culture
- 238 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Perpetual Adolescence
Jungian Analyses of American Media, Literature, and Pop Culture
About This Book
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"âthe puer aeternusâas 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.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Perpetual Adolescence
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction to the Puer/Puella Archetype
- Culture on the Couch: Western Civilizationâs Journey from Crisis to Maturity
- Puer and Hellmouth: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and American Myth
- Puer in Nature: The Monster and the Grizzly Man
- Grounding Icarus: Puer Aeternus and the Suicidal Urge
- The Puer as American Hero
- Shaken, Not Stirred: James Bond and the Puer Archetype
- A Crown Must Be Earned Every Day: Seeking the Mature Masculine in High Art and Pop Culture
- âProtracted Adolescenceâ: Reflections on Forces Informing the American Collective
- Senex and Puer in the Classroom: A Conflict of Consciousness in Education
- Insanity by the Numbers,Knowings from the Ground: Outgrowing and Outloving the Cult of Quantification
- The Marriage of the Puer Aeternusand Trickster Archetypes: Psychological Rebirth for the Puer Personality
- Little Girl Lost: Sylvia Plath and the Puella Aeterna
- Provincials in Time: The Provisional Life
- List of Contributors
- Index