Flow – Psychology of Optimal Experience

(Jeff_L) #1
NOTES ■ 245

Mental health figures are from the U.S. Social Indicators, p. 93. The


budget figures are from the U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 332).


For information on the number of adolescents living in two-parent


families see Brandwein (1977), Cooper (1970), Glick (1979), and Weitz-


man (1978). For crime statistics, see U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p.
189).


Adolescent pathology. For suicide and homicide among teenagers, see


Vital Statistics of the United States, 1985 (U.S. Dept, of Health and
Human Services, 1988), table 8.5. Changes in SAT scores are reported
in the U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 147). According to reliable
estimates, teenage suicide increased by about 300 percent between 1950
and 1980, with the heaviest losses among the privileged cohorts of white,
middle-class, male adolescents (Social Indicators, 1981). The same pat­
terns are shown for crime, homicide, illegitimate pregnancies, venereal
diseases, and psychosomatic complaints (Wynne 1978, Yankelovich
1981). By 1980 one out of ten high school seniors was using psychotropic
drugs daily (Johnston, Bachman, & O’Malley 1981). To qualify this
picture of gloom, it should be mentioned that in most cultures, as far
as it is possible to ascertain, adolescents have been seen as troublesome
(Fox 1977). “The great internal turmoil and external disorder of adoles­
cence are universal and only moderately affected by cultural determi­
nants” (Kiell 1969, p. 9). According to Offer, Ostrov, & Howard (1981),
only about 20 percent of contemporary U.S. adolescents are to be
considered “troubled,” but even this conservative estimate represents,
of course, quite a huge number of young people.


Socialization. The necessity to postpone gratification in order to func­


tion in society was discussed by Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents
(1930). Brown (1959) provided a spirited rebuttal of Freud’s arguments.
For standard works on socialization see Clausen (1968) and Zigler &
Child (1973). A recent extended study of socialization in adolescence
can be found in Csikszentmihalyi & Larson (1984).

Social controls. Some good examples of how social controls are en­


forced by creating chemical dependencies are the case of the Spaniards’
introduction of rum and brandy into Central America (Braudel 1981,
pp. 248-49); the use of whiskey in the expropriation of American Indian
territories; and the Chinese Opium Wars. Herbert Marcuse (1955, 1964)
has discussed extensively how dominant social groups coopt sexuality
and pornography to enforce social controls. As Aristotle said long ago,
“The study of pleasure and pain belongs to the province of the political
philosopher” (Nicomachean Ethics, book 7, chapter 11).

Genes and personal advantage. The argument that genes were pro­


grammed for their own benefit, and not to make life better for their
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