Book Review

Sheila Niles (30-B-2) FPE

THE IMPORTANCE OF WEARING CLOTHES, Lawrence Langner; Hastings House, New York. 312pp +17 addenda +15 index. $7.95 (1959).

No, the date is not a misprint; I missed this one ten years ago, but it's still important enough to rate a review while I wait for one on the same subject written last year. The author has come to realize, after much thought, that "clothing, unlike beauty, was far more than skin-deep, and indeed has affected religion, morals, sex, marriage and most of our social activities and institutions throughout the ages." His interest arose through a combination of his work as a patent expert protecting fashion designs and inventions, considerable theatrical costume experience, and some studies in psychology and sociology. An extra qualification is that his "family and friends wear clothes, though few of them know why."

The first two chapters relate the evolution of clothing and of the explanations for its variety of uses and styles. His choice of theories to explain the basic human desire for decoration is the Adlerian inferiority complex and concept "that the psyche has for its objective the goal of superiority." In this case, the superiority is over the other animals, a point on which mankind has always felt need for reassurance. "If clothes had not been invented, man could never have believed that he was made in God's image and could therefore partake of His godlike attributes." Thus, the elementary use of clothing as protection against cold and thorns led immediately to its secondary and more important use as an aid in role-playing.

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