Symbolic Loss in American Adolescents: Mourning in Teenage Cinema.

Source

, 69A Meadowbrook Place, Maplewood, NJ, 07040, USA, jkramp@jjay.cuny.edu.

Abstract

I argue that the changing economic conditions in the contemporary world have caused a shift in religious and cultural values among American youth. This shift in cultural and religious values and practices is interpreted in this essay as an experience of symbolic loss, or a loss of socially shared historic ideals and symbols (Homans in Childhood and selfhood: essays on tradition, religion, and modernity in the psychology of Erik H. Erikson. Bucknell University Press, Lewisburg, pp 189-228, 2008). I argue that the symbolic loss among American youth can most clearly be seen in the contemporary horror film genre in America. I assess the popularity of this genre, its value structure and the psychosocial consequences of the symbolic losses experienced by American youth as witnessed in this film genre. I suggest two ways in which adolescents and adults can work to re-create cultural and religious meanings that both foster courage and serenity in the face of the profound despair that accompanies the rage and paranoia in the contemporary horror film genre.

TimAllenMDJD

Wednesday, August 8, 2012