ABSTRACT

This chapter looks at the darker trends that are undermining maturity and encouraging an infantilization of the adult population. Using Huxley’s dystopian Brave New World as a cautionary tale, the empirical research is reviewed regarding the epidemic of narcissism and the emotional toll taken by materialism. The growing literature on the addictive effects of new technologies is examined with an eye to understanding how narcissism and materialism are both capitalized upon and nurtured by marketers and manufacturers. Based on these analyses, the potential consequences of the contradictions of contemporary adulthood are identified and discussed in terms of how Western societies might be directed back on course toward a more humanistic future.