Culture of Narcissism: American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations was published in the United States in 1979. Christopher LASCH (1932 – 1994) who had already written several sociology books, in particular from the family (Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged, 1977), takes a psycho-social portrait of an American company absorbed in the conception and adoration of its own image, built in particular by the social sciences. This militant book sparked many controversy and popularisa the term ‘national malaise’, a post-freudian version of malaise in civilisation. A French translation appeared in 1981 at Robert Laffont in the Libertés 2000 collection led by Georges Liébert and Emmanuel Todd, under the title of the Narcisse Complex. This translation, which became quickly unavailable, was republished in 2001, together with an unprecedented postface of the author, by Climats. We have chosen to propose in TransatlanticA the original preface to this edition, drafted by the philosopher Jean-Claude Michéa. His early reading of LASCH seemed to us to spark debate and reactions on a major, controversial and sometimes dated work too. We encourage readers to continue the exchange by writing to us. We will publish the main comments in TransatlanticA’s 3 issue.