NOBROW: Identity Formation in a Fatherless Generation

Generation X, the cohort born between 1964 and 1978, often confronts the clinician with new dilemmas, which the author presents in a detailed case study of his work with Ben, a young man who exemplifies many traits of this generation. The author argues that it is not fruitful to classify Gen-Xers' modes of experience as expressing some early type of pathology; rather, they reflect the social and cultural experience of Generation X. This is characterized by a shift from vertical to horizontal orientation: The connection to the past has less psychic reality for the members of this cohort. Instead they live in a cultural universe defined by the media, the new economy, and the refusal to accept the differences between high and low culture. The impact of this cultural discontinuity on the process of identity formation for Gen-Xers is examined.