ABSTRACT
The counter culture celebrates openness. It is both a product and an affirmation of weakened social bonds, lighter constraints. This is also its problem. Adam Curie has rejoiced in an undersocialized conception of man. Durkheim was more fully alive to its side-effects. Curie applauds the counter culture because it is based on ‘awareness-identity’ rather than ‘belonging-identity’ : it is not rooted in a sense of possessions and affiliation. It was this lack of a sense of society and binding relationships that Durkheim called anomie. But the counter culture is not simply a symptom of an anomie society: it is a solution. It explores viable ways of living with openness. Adam Curie is so impressed by its apparent success that he thinks we may have produced a ‘new psychic mutation’.
