Uncomfortably Numb: Countercultural Impulses in the Postmodern Era

Informed by 1960s research suggesting that early signs of emerging social psychological trends are visible in countercultural groups, the article uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to explore the attitudes of the “Freaks”—a group of countercultural students. Finding that they express pessimism and cynicism, rejection of metanarratives and fragmented identities, the article suggests some comparisons between the Freaks' attitudes and those held by their 1960s predecessors and elaborates on the meaning of these attitudes in light of contemporary theoretical debates about a postmodern self.