La società del narcisismo. Un'applicazione della teoria di Christopher Lasch alla Gestazione per Altri

In this article Gestational Surrogacy will be read as a procreative practice that acquires legitimization in narcissistic societies: societies where the typical features of narcissistic personality are encouraged and rewarded, also in individuals who do not suffer from clinical narcissism, and are promoted as values guiding the expression of the self and relational modalities. By applying Christopher Lasch's theory and by drawing from the dominant representation of gestational surrogacy in the United States, I will argue that this practice is legitimized as a process aimed to the control of the individual's own destiny, and to the achievement of a project for the acquisition of social status (biological parent) regardless the limits of the body and of the partner relation. The goal of 'becoming parent' enabled by gestational surrogacy is not a desire sprang from self-consciousness and experience of the self, rather it is orientated by experts, and is pursued through an hyper-rationalized process enabled by technology and utilitarian relations, which gives priority to the achievement of the goal over the acknowledgement of the of the other (the surrogate and the child). Narcissism is usually put in relation with an increased anti-procreative attitude, which is understood as a lack of interest in contributing to the projection of humanity into the future. This article aims to contribute to Sociological scholarship of narcissism by applying this concept to a practice of 'planned reproduction', in light of the new meanings acquired by procreation, childhood and parenthood. This publication is part of the Marie-Sklodowska Curie project WoMoGeS funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 792464