New Shapes of Family Life

The fate of the American family has become news. Even casual exposure to the media reveals this recurring preoccupation. Throughout television and the popular movies, the public is bombarded with themes of incest, divorce, runaways, parental abandonment, nonmarital cohabitation, and generational struggle. Prime-time family programs no longer shy away from the graphic presentation of these issues; special reports and regular spots on daily newscasts seek to convince us of the pervasiveness of these dislocations. There is furthermore a constant escalation: the most disturbing statistics, the first litigation of its kind, the highest level of abuse, the strangest form of living arrangement, and so forth. The worst of these forecasts are rep...